Profile: Susan C. Lavington

By Lisa Rabasca

First Published: December 2007

Personal Data

Date of birth: Jan. 6, 1969.

Grew up in: Alexandria, Va.

Personal: Married, Michael Welther; twin daughters, Leigh and Emma, 4; son, Max, 16 months. Daughter to be named Sarah expected in December.

Pets: Dogs, Chancellor and Mona; cats, Cosmo and Simone.

Hobbies/Diversions: Homebody, spending time with family, house decorating.

Education: 1991, B.A., economics and English literature, Rice University, Houston; 1996, M.B.A., Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.

Career: 1991-92, special projects director, Watford Investment Corp., McLean, Va.; 1993-94, legislative assistant, U.S. Rep. James P. Moran in Washington, D.C.; 1996-99, manager of electronic commerce marketing and customer service, senior analyst for product marketing and customer service, senior analyst for product marketing, US Airways Inc., Arlington, Va.; 1999-2005, director of marketing, USATODAY.com, Arlington, Va.; 2005-present, vice president of consumer marketing, senior vice president of marketing, USA Today, McLean, Va.

Connections: USA Today, 7950 Jones Branch Drive, McLean, Va. 22108, (703) 854-3498, slavington@usatoday.com

Landing a job at USAToday.com was a dream come true for Susan C. Lavington. While sitting on the beach in Nags Head, N.C., in June 1999, Lavington told her husband, Michael Welther, that her dream job would be doing marketing for USA Today.

"My husband said, 'Go and get that job,' " says Lavington, who at the time worked for US Airways Inc. When they returned home to Alexandria, Va., she saw that Gannett Co. was advertising for a director of marketing for USAToday.com, so she applied.

"Within a week, I had a job offer," Lavington recalls.

Lavington, 38, doesn't hold back when she talks about USA Today. "I have loved USA Today since the day it launched," she says, adding she was 13 years old at the time and remembers watching coverage of the launch party on the Mall in Washington, D.C.

That enthusiasm has helped her shape a strategic vision for USA Today both in print and online. As USA Today's senior vice president of marketing, she is spearheading its new branding efforts, including its new tagline, "We're all in this together," an expansion of the USA Today brand into books, a retail store at New York's LaGuardia International Airport and reading glasses.

Research showed the brand could be much bigger than the core product, Lavington says, and the reading glasses are part of a strategy to grow the brand into new products customers want.

Lavington also has been instrumental in USA Today's move to a multiplatform presence, incorporating Web 2.0 features similar to those used by MySpace and Facebook that allow registered users to write blogs, upload photos or send messages to other registered USAToday.com users. "We're trying harder and harder to bring our readers into the conversation," says Lavington, who is expecting her fourth child in December.

Five Questions
 

1. What's the most challenging aspect of your job?

Internal communications. Open, clear and honest communication is critical in managing day-to-day expectations and in planning and executing long-term strategies.

2. What's the most rewarding part of your job?

Seeing the successes of the people I work with every single day. I am truly proud of my team and all of the big and little things they accomplish in their jobs.

3. In what ways do you think your current position will change over the next five years?

Marketing needs to start thinking more like our peers at consumer product companies than like a "newspaper" company. This means knowing our customers through rich consumer research, creating and executing long-term brand strategies and building and launching a full pipeline of truly new products and businesses.

4. What's the best career advice anyone ever gave you?

Actions speak louder than words.

5. What three things would you change about the newspaper industry?

• Stop the navel gazing.
• Stop trying to convince the world that we "get it".
• Then just do it (see answer to question No. 4).