20 Under 40 - 2002 Profile: Robyn C. McCloskey

PRESSTIME

By Presstime Magazine

First Published: November 2002

'Straight shooter'

Industry consolidation and changes in ownership and management styles helped propel Robyn C. McCloskey from a part-time telephone-sales representative to publisher of the 10,636-circulation Pharos-Tribune in Logansport, Ind., in about 12 years.

The evening daily numbers among a dozen in a cluster owned by Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. of Birmingham, Ala. The company bought the cluster from Thomson Newspapers, whose managers aggregated the group in the late 1990s.

After attending j-school, McCloskey wrote radio copy until she moved to Logansport to "marry her childhood sweetheart." The couple's son was 10 months old when she went back to work. She quickly moved to outside sales, then sales manager and ad director. When Thomson purchased the paper, along came executive training and opportunities to shine as the corporation merged business functions with nearby dailies. "We were able to grow with it, and it was good for us," she reflects.

With Mark Cohen, now a CNHI vice president, she "revamped the advertising departments, started cross-selling nearly $1 million in advertising a year, developed a telesales department, and refined many strategies and processes still in place today." Cohen lauds her as "straight-shooting and to-the-point."

McCloskey remains most proud of the paper's participation in a communitywide initiative to hike the region's image. The 40,000-population county, with a still-solid agricultural and industrial base, boasts a historic Dentzel carousel. Public-service ads, plus sweatshirts, stationery and other materials now encourage residents to "Have pride and 'Grab the brass ring' in Logansport and Cass County."

Education: 1985, A.S., journalism, Vincennes University, Vincennes, Ind.
Career: 1985-89, WSAL and WLHM radio station copywriter; 1990-96, ad-account executive, ad-sales manager, advertising director, Pharos-Tribune, Logansport, Ind.; 1996-2000, regional ad director, Pharos-Tribune and Kokomo (Ind.) Tribune; and major ad accounts representative, Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. of Birmingham, Ala.; 2001-present, printing and production general manager, media-collections serv-ices supervisor, CNHI major ad accounts manager, publisher, Pharos-Tribune.
Personal: Age, 37. Born, Indianapolis. Married, husband Alan; one daughter, one son.
Diversions: Reading, gardening, swimming, spending time with family and friends.
Connections: Pharos-Tribune, 517 E. Broadway, Logansport, Ind. 46947, (574) 732-5133, robyn. mccloskey@pharostribune.com.