Junck succeeds William Dean Singleton, chairman of MediaNews Group Inc., who has completed a five-year term as chairman of the AP board, which oversees the not-for-profit cooperative of U.S. newspapers and broadcasters. She will take over after the Associated Press annual meeting in April.
As chairman of the AP board’s revenue committee, Junck has taken a leading role in promoting and helping develop industry-wide innovations between AP and its members. In a pioneering collaboration between newspaper publishers and retailers in 2011, AP and 40 leading newspapers created a service called iCircular to provide new mobile advertising products that enhance newspapers' advertising circulars with location-specific offers and interactive, engaging tools.
Junck joined the AP board in 2004 and was re-elected to a three-year term by the AP membership in 2007 and again in 2010. She was named vice chairman of the board in 2008.
In 1999, Junck joined Lee Enterprises as executive vice president and chief operating officer. In 2000, she became president of Lee, a leading provider of local news, information and advertising in primarily midsize markets, with 52 daily newspapers, rapidly growing digital products and nearly 300 specialty publications in 23 states. She was named chief executive officer in 2001 and chairman in 2002.
Before Lee, Junck held senior executive positions at the former Times Mirror Co. As executive vice president of Times Mirror and president of Times Mirror Eastern Newspapers, she was responsible for Newsday, The Baltimore Sun, the Hartford Courant, The Morning Call, Southern Connecticut Newspapers and a magazine division. From 1993 to 1997, she was publisher and chief executive officer of The Baltimore Sun. She began her career with Knight Ridder at the Charlotte Observer in 1972 and advanced to assistant advertising director at The Miami Herald, assistant to the Knight Ridder senior vice president of operations, and to publisher and president of the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
She is also a director with the Newspaper Association of America.