'Star-Ledger' Publisher Moves to Corporate Post; No Successor Named

By: Joe Strupp Linda Dennery, publisher of The Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J., is leaving her post after more than four and a half years to take a corporate job at Advance Publications, the paper's parent company.

Dennery, who took over the post in October 1999 after the death of former publisher Martin Bartner, previously served as president of The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, another Advance property.

Dennery, 56, will become executive vice president of benefits for Advance Newspaper Group, which includes 21 dailies. The Star-Ledger (Click for QuikCap), with a daily circulation of 407,945. is the chain's largest paper.

"I am delighted to accept a very big challenge," said Dennery, who would not comment further on why she was moving on. "I don't have a comment for you."

In a memo to staff issued last week, Dennery focused more on her new position than her current post.

"Addressing the problems facing our benefit programs, and health care in particular, has become a matter demanding the highest priority," the memo said in part. "To resolve the issues in a manner consistent with our Job Security Pledge will require intimate familiarity of our culture as well as broad knowledge of the health care industry and human resources. The job will be both challenging and demanding.

"I will continue to serve as your publisher while a search for my successor at the Star-Ledger continues," the memo added. "There is no way for me to fully express my pride in the Star-Ledger team and the great newspaper we produce together each day. I will simply say thank you for your past support and friendship. I'll be depending on that same caring cooperation in the transition time ahead."

Other executives at the paper and Advance Publications, including Star-Ledger General Manager Mark Newhouse and Advance Publications President Donald Newhouse, declined to indicate a reason for the change. "That is all the information we'll give," Donald Newhouse said. "That is all the information that needs to be known."

The paper saw a slight increase in circulation during the last six-month period that ended March 31, 2004, reporting a daily boost of 215 copies. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations FAS-FAX, Sunday circ also went up slightly, by 1,028 copies, to 610,542, over the same period.

Neither of the Newhouses would say how they plan to replace Dennery or give any indication how long a search for a new publisher would take.

Dennery's departure comes just a few weeks after a newsroom shake-up that saw the naming of a new editorial page editor, managing editor for enterprise, associate editor, deputy editorial editor, and special projects editor.