20 Under 40 - 1998 Profile: Mark S. Mikolajczyk

PRESSTIME

By Presstime Magazine

First Published: December 1998

 Backyard conversations typically turn to sports or weather. But Gannett Co. Vice President of Production Mark S. Mikolajczyk and a former neighbor once tackled a less quotidian topic over their fence: shampoo samples.
Then vice president of production at The Cincinnati Enquirer, Mikolajczyk and his neighbor, who happened to work for Procter & Gamble Co., often discussed the hometown giant's reluctance to advertise in newspapers. The result: one of the earliest newspaper product-sampling efforts.
It's an example of a mindset that makes Gannett Senior Vice President Carleton Rosenburgh call Mikolajczyk "a rare production executive whoÉkeeps advertiser and subscriber needs foremost."
An older brother's interest in printing led Mikolajczyk to the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, where a professor approached him about a fledgling publication with the unprecedented goal of printing lots of color on newsprint. Mikolajczyk helped organize USA Today's startup operations in the Philadelphia market and never left parent Gannett Co., moving from its flagship to papers in Cincinnati and Port Huron, Mich., before assuming his corporate post in 1996.
Mikolajczyk arrived at his current job in the midst of three larger papers' conversion to offset printing and a slew of acquisitions. Since then, his duties have included serving on a $100 million capital-acquisitions committee, setting production quality standards, and identifying prospects for local production positions. Through it all, the self-effacing executive relishes the pace of technological change while maintaining the same customer-centric approach he once brought to backyard conversations.
"Production is a service department," he explains. "We serve internal customers¯news, advertising and circulation. It's our role to help them serve...our readers and advertisers."

Education: 1982, B.S., printing management and technology, Rochester Institute of Technology, New York.
Career: 1982-83, production coordinator, USA Today, Landsale, Pa.; 1983-84, night-operations manager, USA Today, Arlington, Va.; 1984-86, special-projects manager, production-operations manager, The Cincinnati Enquirer; 1986-89, production director, Times Herald, Port Huron, Mich.; 1989-96, vice president of production, The Cincinnati Enquirer; 1996-present, director of operations, vice president of production, Gannett Co.
Personal: Age, 37. Born, Cleveland. Married, wife Kim, three daughters, one son.
Diversions: Golf, home improvements.
Connections: Gannett Co., 1100 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, Va. 22234. E-mail, mmikolaj@gci1.gannett.com; phone, (703) 284-6654; fax, (703) 247-3189.