20 Under 40 - 2004

PRESSTIME

By Presstime Magazine

First Published: December 2004

This year's 20 Under 40 issue got off to a rather inauspicious start. Amid torrential rains, howling winds and reports of tornadoes, the selection team for this year's honorees met in Washington to identify the newest wave of leadership excellence from newspapers across the country.

Some might say that the swirling, anxious disorder brought by the weather was a metaphor for the challenges facing the newspaper industry. With increasingly desperate reports of circulation declines, changing readership habits and even irrelevancy, newspapers have recently faced a torrent of criticism.

Yet amid the scores of nominees, the selection team found an array of accomplished professionals, offering renewed hope for the future.

What you will see in the following pages is not a list of the Top 20 executives of the future. Sadly, and by its very nature, this is far from a comprehensive list of young talent. It is a representative snapshot of how the next generation of industry leaders is bringing new approaches to the challenges of today and tomorrow.

With this list, we hope not only to recognize exceptional achievement, but also to highlight the growing trend of devising new approaches—new publications, dedicated sections, foreign-language publishing—in an effort to attract new readers and broaden revenue streams. Through the efforts of this year's honorees and many more like them, we illustrate a stark counterpoint to the common perception of newspapers as aging dinosaurs.

Instead, you will find innovation, vision and drive.

Presstime's 2004 "20 Under 40"

• Barbara Allen
  
• Keely Byars
  
• Alfredo Carbajal-Madrid
  
• Karen Crotchfelt
  
• Robin Davis
  
• Warren C. Dews Jr.
  
• Cindy Doege
  
• Rasheeda S. Hakeem
  
• Todd Hubbard
  
• Rick Martin
  
• Lisa O'Halloran
  
• John O'Loughlin
  
• Daniel Paris
  
• Rich Ramhoff
  
• John Schwartz
  
• Jackie Stark
  
• Mark A. Stevens
  
• Steve Wagenlander
  
• Don Wittekind
  
• Christopher S. Wood