Saturday, February 12, 2011

Long-time Gannett executive Bottorf dies at 76

Richard M. Bottorf, who began his newspaper career at Gannett in Rochester, N.Y., worked for four years as vice president of operations at Corporate in Virginia. He served as circulation director at Rochester, before being appointed publisher of Vermont's Burlington Free Press. He retired in 1994 as publisher of Connecticut's Norwich Bulletin.

Bottorf died Wednesday at Thompson Hospital in Victor, N.Y., the Freep reported today. He was 76.

A sidebar
GCI sold the Bulletin, plus Illinois' Rockford Register Star; New York's Observer-Dispatch in Utica, and The Herald-Dispatch in Huntington, West Va., to GateHouse Media in May 2007 for $410 million.

2 comments:

  1. Dick was a real bottom line guy who always delivered high margins and
    was great at building teamwork.

    Old Fashions were his beverage of choice.
    RIP Dick

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was in middle management at one of his sites, but knew that top department heads around the building found him to be decent and fair. He was discreet and cut a little slack when people had illnesses or home problems. And he was friendly to all employees and easy to approach. Made people feel proud to work at a newspaper - that there was both a higher purpose and a lot of money to be made. In other words, he was highly unusual for a guy in his position. Gannett trains managers to become jerks as the move up the food chain, and Dick held to principles and human decency.
    RIP and safe passage, sir. And may your family find comfort and peace.

    ReplyDelete

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