Prichard the latest Gannett exec to join Freedom Forum p.10

By: Editorial Staff PETER PRICHARD MIGHT want to title the next chapter of his career "The Leaving of McPaper."
Prichard ? editor of USA Today since 1988 and author of the paper's authorized biography, The Making of McPaper: The Inside Story of USA Today ? is leaving the newspaper to become executive director of the Newseum, a $30-million news museum being developed by the Freedom Forum in Arlington, Va.
On Jan. 1, 1995, Prichard will join the ranks of a number of former Gannett Co. executives who have joined USA Today founder Allen H. Neuharth across the street at the Freedom Forum.
Neuharth is chairman of both the Freedom Forum and the Newseum.
A USA Today staffer since the paper was founded in 1982, Prichard began as columns editor of the editorial page. In 1983, he was promoted to deputy editorial director and moved up the following year to associate editorial director. He wrote the McPaper book in 1987, and in 1988 was named editor of USA Today. In April 1990, he was named chief news executive for Gannett. Prichard, who worked in both newspapers and television, joined the Gannett corporate staff in 1978 as an assistant to Neuharth, who then was president and CEO of Gannett.
Replacing Prichard as editor of USA Today is David Mazzarella, who will add that title to his current position as president of the newspaper's international publishing division.
Mazzarella has been president of the international division since 1985. A former Associate Press newsman overseas, he worked for Gannett Co. papers upon returning to the United States in 1976.
Mazzarella worked his way up to become publisher of the Courier-News in Bridgewater, N.J., in 1979. A participant in the planning of USA Today, he joined the staff there in 1983.
Other promotions announced by the Freedom Forum, effective Jan. 1, are Gerald M. Sass, formerly senior vice president, who will become executive vice president, the foundation"s number-two position; Christine Wells, who had been vice president in charge of both the Newseum and international operations, will become senior vice president of international operations; Everette E. Dennis, executive director of the Freedom Forum Media Studies Center at Columbia University in New York and a vice president, will become senior vice president as head of the foundation's largest operating program.