20 Under 40 - 1998 Profile: L. Susan Hunt

PRESSTIME

By Presstime Magazine

First Published: December 1998

 Last-minute negotiations between editors ("Just 20 more minutes, and we can get in this important news!") and circulation ("Blow deadline, and no guarantees on delivery!") prompt a clearheaded response from L. Susan Hunt: "I tell editorial, yes, you can get it in, but if no one has time to read it, who cares?"
Sometimes, says Operations Director Hunt, the diplomatic skills she learned as a middle child serve her as well as degrees in accounting and business.
Bob Gremillion, president and publisher of the Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, credits the paper's widespread productivity gains to Hunt's many positive attributes. These include attention to detail, quest for efficiency, fearlessness in questioning the way things have always been done, and a determination to make things better. Officials at The New York Times call the daily "a leader in reproduction quality among the sites that print the paper."
Hunt turned her back on routine auditing for an opportunity to "be involved in making something happen at the front end." Budget administration and, later, project management in the pressroom might daunt some liberal-arts types, but she received encouragement from onetime boss Jeff Johnson. Now general manager of Landoll's Inc., the Tribune Co. children's books publisher in Ashland, Ohio, Johnson is, like her, "more a people person than a numbers person," Hunt says. On-the-job coaching and work at a remote printing plant allowed her to "screw up and learn" without top brass looking over her shoulder.
Production workers "don't expect me to tell them how to do it, they expect me to tell them what I need done." Long-range projects, constant change and the daily miracle of putting out a paper continue to provide excitement and satisfaction.
Her advice on how to cope while overseeing a staff that works 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year?
"Always get out for lunch."

Education:1982, B.A, accounting, Stetson University, DeLand, Fla.; 1996, M.B.A., Rollins College, Winter Park, Fla.
Career: 1982-86, auditor for Peat Marwick Mitchell, Jacksonville and Orlando, and Price Waterhouse, Orlando; 1986-1997, assistant controller, operations administration manager and production manager, The Orlando Sentinel; 1997-present, vice president and operations director, Sun-Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale.
Personal: Age, 38. Born, Rockledge, Fla. Single, two cats "who are in control."
Diversions: Community service, reading, travel, spending time with family, including niece and nephews.
Connections: Sun-Sentinel, 333 S.W. 12th Ave., Deerfield Beach, Fla. 33442-3196. E-mail, shunt@tribune.com; phone, (954) 425-1200; fax, (954) 425-1212.