by Carolyn Terry

Not so long ago, newspaper up-and-comers judged to possess publisher or top-executive potential followed a fairly linear path to the corner office.

A senior executive or direct supervisor would identify a promising junior executive on the business side or in the newsroom and champion him or her to corporation heads. With training to fill gaps in education and specific skills, the candidate would climb through a succession of more challenging supervisory positions in ever-larger divisions or properties.

Publishers and general managers typically have risen from the newsroom and advertising departments, but increasingly, those doing the hiring are broadening their views. The digital revolution, in particular, has helped rewrite the job descriptions. Newspaper companies are retooling as content providers, meshing editorial products with broadcast stations and exploring new-media synergies rather than operating out of separate silos.

“Nowadays, media that used to be sworn enemies are sitting down together looking for ways to develop partnerships,” says Michael A. Walker, a partner at the management-recruiting firm of Youngs, Walker & Co. in Inverness, Ill. Newspaper companies, television stations and telecoms are forming alliances to find a faster, cheaper way to deliver the product. Those with skills bridging such ventures are not marching through the door straight to the publisher position yet, but more people than ever with marketing, advertising and digital backgrounds are attaining high-level jobs at newspapers, he says.

Most newspapers still promote publishers from within the organization, yet riding along on deliveries or knowing how to run a press are no longer mandatory skills for the person in the top slot, says Walker.

“The publisher’s job is more big picture. It’s looking at the entire marketplace and deciding how that affects the workings of all departments together.”

Also, as media companies attempt to retain the double-digit returns that shareholders became accustomed to during boom times, expect to see more executives with business-school degrees, says Walker. “The last time the economy took a turn for the worse, we saw a trend of people with financial backgrounds making it into the publisher ranks. We could see that again if the economy continues to decline.”

Last month, Knight Ridder of San Jose named a career business-side executive, Joseph Natoli, as publisher of The San Jose Mercury News. The former president of the Miami Herald replaces newsroom-graduate Jay Harris, who resigned to protest Knight Ridder’s budget cuts and performance goals.

For most publisher jobs, newspaper companies still seek candidates with newspaper backgrounds, executives say. “I see people with law degrees and MBAs coming in from outside, but more in chief-financial-officer jobs than as publishers,” says James Schurz, senior vice president of Schurz Newspapers in South Bend, Ind. “I’d get worried if CPAs started showing up in publishers’ positions [in great numbers]. It’s not a sin to be profitable, but newspapers can’t fixate on the bottom line,” he says.

However, newspaper departments other than the newsroom are producing skilled leaders, especially marketing and advertising, says Walker.

GROOMING CANDIDATES
The methods of succession planning and management training haven’t changed much over time, though the skills emphasized have. Executives look for successors who bring adaptability, a collaborative-management style, technological acumen and a willingness to cross departmental borders.

A group of Fortune 500 executives recently told the American Management Association that the quality they value most in those who aspire to top- management jobs is flexibility. They look for leaders who can turn on a dime, in step with—or better yet, a step ahead of—the new economy.

Newspaper executives agree. “We put a much higher priority on identifying people with excellent human-resource and communication skills now, along with those conversant in new media,” says Peter G. Stone, vice president of legal and human resources at Ottaway Newspapers in Campbell Hall, N.Y.

Of course, Stone still wants candidates grounded by experience and solid management skills. But publishers, recruiters and human-resource professionals talk first about looking for flexible leaders who can give and take direction without getting whiplash in the process.

Market conditions and media technologies are undergoing transformation in a short period, forcing old-economy businesses to move away from the post-World War II command-style of management that suited those entering corporations from the military, says Jack Fuller, president of newspaper operations at Tribune Co. in Chicago. Today’s leader “has to be intellectually supple, open to different management styles and ideas from everywhere and everyone,” he says.

In addition to collaborative management, employers’ wish lists for new leaders include charisma, the ability to inspire others, the courage to take risks, awareness of one’s own strong and weak points, respect of peers, and a zest for continuous learning. Ethnic diversity often plays a role, too.

“Part of our normal search procedure is to develop a diverse pool of candidates, says Walker.

“We consciously seek increased diversity by seeking a large pool of diverse candidates for openings,” says Stone.

Almost all multiproperty media companies, including Tribune, have developed formal leadership-development programs to identify and promote talent. Twice yearly, a panel of Tribune board executives selects a few dozen publishers, managers and division heads to participate in the leadership-development initiative. “People who want to move up the ranks are aware of the ways to do it. You don’t have to stand on top of your desk and wave your arms to get noticed,” says Fuller.

Candidates who make the A-list are identified by a senior-level manager or direct supervisor, says Luis Lewin, Tribune Co.’s senior vice president of human resources. Executives have compiled an evolving series of skill sets and leadership qualities each candidate should pursue, along with goals and timetables for acquiring them. These “success factors” include business acumen, customer orientation, innovation, leadership and results orientation.

Depending on their job functions or titles, candidates receive in-house training; attend courses off site at learning centers such as the Newspaper Management Center at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., and the American Press Institute in Reston, Va.; or enroll at a local university to hone technical skills and meet the above-mentioned goals. Often, for publisher- or vice president-level candidates, a personal coach observes the executive on the job and works with the individual to identify strengths and weaknesses in management style, says Levin.

MAPPING WORK STYLES
Large corporations of all types employ organizational-development tools such as coaches to help top managers nurture their critical competencies, says Levin. Think of a personal coach as a Sherpa career guide for executives.

“We work with you to assess who you are, what you want to accomplish, and how best to get you there,” says Lisa Champagne, an associate with The Employer’s Edge in Torrance, Calif.

Assessment tools such as interviews and tests help determine strengths and weaknesses. Questions attempt to evaluate how the candidate would react in a given situation. Then, the coach and candidate compile a personality profile, says Champagne, who has coached executives at the Daily Breeze in Torrance. “When you know what you’re best at and how that fits your job, it becomes easier to apply those strengths strategically.”

Yes, Champagne admits, some executives initially balk at revealing psycho-social information or view the process as superfluous to getting his or her job done. But the profiles are designed to stress the upside of the individual’s working style without sacrificing accuracy. Most people relax and admit that they recognize themselves on paper. “Once you hear, ‘Yes, that’s me,’ the person has bought in, and you can explore weaknesses that get in the way of accomplishment,” she says.

The pair looks at the four areas where the candidate thinks he or she is least effective and sets goals. From there, the coach works around the executive’s schedule—some teams talk on the phone, others meet face-to-face.

Top managers at Ottaway undergo a selection process similar to that of Tribune execs, says Stone. A committee of corporation chairs, presidents and other senior managers reviews lists of key personnel from the 19 Ottaway newspapers about three times a year. They also may examine a few candidates from outside, but Ottaway mostly promotes for top jobs from within, he says.

Some people attend local university courses in executive development, employee relations and new media, three areas that have gained prominence on the yardstick for evaluating new leaders. Most go through a battery of interviews at corporate headquarters and meet with an outside consultant who evaluates and augments management’s opinion of the candidate.

Ottaway’s promotion process has slowed a little since the company downsized a few years ago, says Stone. “We’ve made fewer acquisitions, but managers continue the natural progression to successively larger papers.” At any given time, about a half-dozen people are under consideration for executive development, he says.

LEARN BY DOING
Some companies with newly established leadership-competence programs have shifted from training classes toward more experiential learning. In January, Belo in Dallas began offering a small group the opportunity to transcend department lines and work with people in different businesses, says Marian Spitzberg, vice president of human resources.

“It depends on what we feel the candidate’s developmental needs are. Since we operate newspapers and broadcast properties, we let people rotate through areas of the business they aren’t familiar with,” she says.

Others are encouraged to join a team to examine a specific business issue. “That way, employees can use their problem-solving strengths to come up with a solution and learn about a new area of the company at the same time,” says Spitzberg, a former assistant general counsel who made the transition to human resources.

Belo will offer its executive-development program annually. Since training varies depending on the level of the trainee’s position, some will complete it in a few months while others will take as long as two years.

Belo executives show less interest in grooming people for specific career tracks than in identifying talented leaders and training them for a broader experience. “We decided to integrate a system of management development we believe will better equip employees for moving anywhere in the organization,” says Spitzberg.

Among the goals of this broad-based experiential method are to foster innovative thinking and empower people to act while they also exercise good business judgment. Participants receive 360-degree feedback on the job and use it to help them create individual development plans, she says.

The 360-degree checkpoint-feedback system “gives us a picture of what a person looks like from different angles,” says Champagne. Typically, the candidate is asked to rate him- or herself on eight critical competencies. Then, supervisors, peers and direct reports rate the person in those competencies.

Except for the observations of the candidate’s supervisor, individual evaluations are kept confidential. The candidate is encouraged to examine the four areas of least effectiveness and set goals to improve them. The exercise demonstrates that someone may be rated an effective communicator by peers, but not by subordinates, says Champagne.

CROSS-TRAINING
Some smaller news organizations offer more informal training opportunities. That provides employees more freedom of movement, says John G. Lee, president of Harris Enterprises in Hutchinson, Kan.

Harris instituted an executive internship in the late 1950s to replace publishers as they retired from the company’s eight newspapers. The program is small—currently one person is in training—and the timing flexible.

Harris still tends to promote publishers from the newsroom. “It used to be typical in markets of our size to have publishers with a journalism background, but as larger groups started to merge in the 1960s, owners started putting business people into the top slots. We don’t look down on profits, but newspapers aren’t just any business. Plus, we’ve had good success with publishers grounded in news,” Lee says.

In 1957, the company started a junior-executive initiative to attract bright students graduating from universities in its Iowa, Kansas and Missouri markets. Recruits received hands-on experience in how each newspaper department operates, says Harris Vice President Bruce Buchanan. Hot prospects typically spent about three years going through different departments. They were then promoted to assist a publisher and later considered for publisher-slot openings.

However, the company has changed its approach over the past few years, selecting candidates from among its employees, he says. Harris prides itself on encouraging editorial employees to acquire business-side skills. William Mertens, president and publisher of The Hawk Eye in Burlington, Iowa, worked in the newsroom there and at The Hays Daily News and The Salina Journal, both in Kansas. But two former advertising directors who came up through the ranks at Harris properties now head them: Ann Charles is publisher of the Parsons (Kan.) Sun, and Jeanny Sharp publishes the Ottawa (Kan.) Herald. Sharp came through the executive-development program; Charles did not.

As newspapers soften the strict lines between editorial and advertising, look for news execs who know how to work across departments, even if they’ve only worked in one discipline, says Walker. “A good newsroom candidate is someone who doesn’t think ‘advertising’ is a dirty word. People who respect how business decisions affect all departments are a valuable asset, no matter where you put them,” he says.

Tribune Co. allows executives to move freely among disciplines, say Fuller and Levin. “We’ve had several gifted lawyers and accountants move into management in other departments that sparked their interest,” says Fuller.

Publishers and broadcast executives have switched disciplines in the company’s multimedia operation, too. Robert Gremillion, publisher and chief executive officer of the South Florida Sun Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, was previously vice president of Tribune Programming Inc. and general manager of CLTV-ChicagoLand, the 24-hour cable operation. Denise Palmer, ChicagoLand’s current president and chief executive officer, was vice president of development and finance at the Chicago Tribune before switching to station manager at WGN radio in Chicago. And Gerald W. Agema, recently named vice president of administration and chief financial officer at the daily Tribune, formerly headed Tribune Broadcasting.

Belo’s Spitzberg, as assistant general counsel, had worked in the legal department for eight years before switching to human resources. Handling employee-relations issues in a legal context whetted her appetite for HR and organizational development. She joined the department one year ago to create executive-management development programs. “I had experience and training as a lay counselor before I went to law school. I’m mostly learning a lot of the benefits administration and generalist HR functions on the job,” she says.

How do you identify the characteristics, skills and competencies that set these people apart from other employees? Look at the results they get, managers say.

The performance of people who work for the supervisor reveals a lot about an executive’s talent for communication and inspiring others. Strong leaders are typically described as open-minded team players who encourage unorthodox problem-solving, says Margot Lane, an executive recruiter based in Bergen, N.J.

Watch what staffers do as well as what they say, she advises. Tools such as the 360-degree feedback process and less formal means help determine a manager’s style. “Conversations with peers and subordinates will indicate whether a person has collaborative-management skills or prefers to micro-manage or be authoritarian,” she says.

“The ability to welcome and adapt to change has to be number-one on anybody’s list in the news business,” agrees Catherine Shen, vice president of strategy for Horvitz Newspapers in Bellevue, Wash. Even privately held, family-owned chains such Horvitz must encourage top managers to “seek out restless people who won’t just tell you what you want to hear—the innovators,” says Shen. “I laud city editors who’ve made a career of one type of job, but we shouldn’t underestimate [the executive capabilities of] the nomads who’ve learned how to do a lot of different things.

“Look at [America Online’s] Steve Case. He started out as a marketer at Procter & Gamble. We have to look at people from all disciplines to take us in new directions.”