Editor & Publisher Honors 2010 'Production All-Stars'

Editor & Publisher named 15 newspaper operations executives and managers as Production All-Stars in its October 2010 print issue, honoring the men and women from news organizations large and small across the U.S. and Canada for their extraordinary leadership and exceptional results at a time when resources and budgets are stretched as never before.

“The  Production All-Stars recognized this year are exemplars of operations departments in newspapers throughout North America that found a way to make yet another cost saving, to discover yet another incremental revenue-generator, to juggle and streamline, consolidate and carry on,” write E&P Senior Editor Jim Rosenberg and Editor Mark Fitzgerald in the cover story.

Production All-Stars were chosen from three categories: newspapers with circulation below 75,000, newspapers with circulation above 75,000 and Senior Managers, those who head operations at a cluster of newspapers or for an entire company.

The Production All-Stars will be honored at a luncheon during the International Newspaper Group’s annual conference Oct. 2 in Chicago, a day before the opening of the big Graph Expo equipment show, which this year includes exhibition space specifically devoted to newspapers.

The following were named Production All-Stars by E&P:



SENIOR MANAGERS

William J. Higginson
President and Chief Operating Officer
Journal Register Company, Yardley, Pa.

Standout achievements:  Starting his career as a pressman in 1973, he was instrumental as Corporate Production Director in the formation of Journal Register Co.’s  IPO and NYSE listing in 1994. Headed up design, equipment selection and construction of JRC’s offset printing plant in Exton, Pa., which prints more than 60 papers and was accepted into the International Newspaper Color Quality Club, the competition run by IfRA. Promoted from Senior Vice President of Production to President and COO in March 2010, and is credited with executing its financial restructuring and transformation into a digital-first media company.

Richard Rinehart
Senior Vice President of Operations and Strategic Planning
The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.

Standout  achievements: Brought in new commercial work, devised a switch  to a single-press operation that brought big  savings, substantially improved safety record, achieved highest mailroom productivity among McClatchy newspapers, oversaw a $24 million production expansion project.


OVER 75,000 CIRCULATION

Dominic Crews
Director of Operations
The Times of Northwest Indiana, Munster, Ind.

Standout achievements: Showed extraordinary leadership after a pressroom fire that destroyed one printing unit, damaged others, and left every surface coated with corrosive contaminants. Through it all, the Times never once failed to publish a full and complete product. He wrung out $750,000 in costs annually by consolidating pressruns from straight to collect for live inserting, and narrowed the Times  web width twice in three years.

Sheila Davidson
Vice President of Operations
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Standout achievements: Established the Journal Sentinel as the premier print newspaper and distribution outsourcing business in its region as it picked up numerous contracts. “Sheila effectively led the teams at that enabled us to realize $4.3 million in new commercial print revenues from three major new customers in the past year,” Publisher Betsy Brenner says.


David E. Preisser
Vice President of Operations
Enquirer Media, Cincinnati, Ohio

Standout achievements: Converted 27 Community Press weeklies from broadsheet to Berliner format; saved net $21,000 a week pulling TMC (total market coverage) product from mail to carriers; consolidated Saturday/Sunday inserting for the Newspaper Network of Central Ohio (NNCO) at single plant, reducing NNCO’s inserting costs by 20%; directed project closing underused plant, distributing equipment to other Gannett plants or selling it off.

Mike Quinn
Senior Vice president, Operations and Circulation
Detroit Newspaper Partnership

Standout achievements: The eyes of the entire newspaper industry were on Detroit as the Newspaper Partnership last year instituted the bold strategy of radically changing its distribution model. For the strategy to pay off – as it did – the production and circulation operations Quinn leads had to execute flawlessly. Quinn found numerous ways to bring down costs by reducing truck runs, eliminating leased  distribution warehouses, reaching new contracts with delivery agents and more.

Anthony Triner
Vice President of Production
Sun-Times Media, Chicago

Standout achievements: In a three-year period, consolidated Sun-Times Media’s Chicago region printing plants from five to just one. Implemented reliability standards that cut delivery complaints by 47%. “When we are faced with a small crisis, or with a major technology challenge, again and again, he has stepped up with his team to bring the right alternatives to the table. In every case it has happened with exceptional return on investment,” says COO Rick Surkamer.

LARRY URRUTIA
Operations Vice President
Tucson Newspapers Inc.

Standout achievements: As Gannett’s West Group Production Director, Urrutia improved efficiency at several locations through consolidation,  lowered total waste, converted to CTP and brought web widths down to 48 inches, and then 44, while retaining the ability to run the 48-inch web needed by several commercial accounts — making Tucson among the few doublewide printing facilities capable of printing on multiple web widths. Under his direction, commercial printing grew from nonexistent to a multimillion-dollar revenue stream.


UNDER 75,000 CIRCULATION:

Dave Atkinson
Production Director
The Salina (Kan.) Journal

Standout achievements: Greatly expanded quality contract color print work. Added an old press from the nearby Hays Daily News, and performed much of the installation work himself. Scheduled second press operations with no net increase in staff. An early CTP advocate, Atkinson also turned the paper’s recycling effort into a revenue generator.

Cindy Cowan
Production Manager
The Daily Times, Farmington, N.M.

Standout achievements: A rare production executive who started in the newsroom, Cowan is a Jill of all trades in a small paper. Generated new ad revenue with installation of Post-It ads; created, edited, paginated and printed special sections; cut overtime and labor costs in mailroom by moving employees from full- to part-time.

John Partlow
Press/Production Manager
Walla Walla (Wash.) Union-Bulletin

Standout achievements: Despite working with a very old press (installation: 1969), Partlow implemented a narrower web width, keeps waste and plate usage to a minimum. He’s so good at wringing savings, the Union-Bulletin determined “that John’s operation is so efficient there would be no savings outsourcing printing. In fact, we are saving tens of thousands of dollars annually thanks to John and his teams efforts,” the Union-Bulletin Publisher Rob Blethen says.

Tammy Schuey
Director of Technology
Butler (Pa.) Eagle

Standout achievements: Project head for new production facility; implemented CTP and software saving money on materials and inks; headed web width reduction from 50" to 44". “As the only person employed here skilled to do all of the necessary layout and reductions needed, she put in immeasurable time while still keeping us operating day to day. This nets us a 12% savings on newsprint costs alone,” says General Manager Ron Vodenichar. The most surprising thing about Schuey, he adds: The vo-tech high grad is “100% self-educated in newspaper production,” yet earned her promotions to director of technology.

Kevin Shaw
Vice President of Operations
South Bend (Ind.) Tribune

Standout achievements: Cut waste by 50% since taking on production responsibilities in 2008; improved on-time rate for the multiple-edition Tribune to 95.4%, with late time typically under 10 minutes; maximized efficiency of packaging labor force initially intimidated by Magnapak 30-into-1 inserter.  “Our hours per insert have been reduced by 21.35% and again by 28.38% the past two years.  Hours per page of preprints have declined by 17.85% and 20.25% the past two years. Hours per thousand preprints have declined by 17.42% and 19.01% the past two years,” says Vice President and General Manager Steven Funk.

Lorraine Sullivan
Production Manager
Gulf Islands Driftwood, Salt Spring Island, British Columbia

Standout achievements: Headed up the conversion to a 7-column web format from 6 columns, resizing ads and image formats for an error-free rollout. There’s not a single work-related injury in production during her tenure. Says Publisher Peter McCully: “It may  seem strange to say, but as we are a small circulation paper (4,200) I am always asked at  conventions and industry meetings how we manage to snag many provincial and national  awards. It is my opinion that it is due in large part to the fact that we have a great creative. It is my opinion that Lorraine sets the bar high, and in reaching it – also sets the bar  higher for other newspapers in our geographical and circulation areas.”