Russ Newton takes on Valley Sun and sister publications
Glendale resident Russ Newton has been named publisher of Times Community News, a portfolio of papers that includes the La Cañada Valley Sun, Glendale News-Press and Burbank Leader, as well as Orange County titles The Daily Pilot, Coastline Pilot and Huntington Beach Independent.
He was appointed to the position late last month by Austin Beutner, publisher and chief executive of the Los Angeles Times. Newton is the first Times Community News publisher since the departure of Gordon Tomaske, who took a position with Southern California Edison in 2009.
Newton began his career in Wisconsin in the 1970s and worked his way from being a pressman, with jobs in Virginia and Chicago, into management positions at Tribune-owned papers in Newport News, Va. and Orlando, Fla.
He came to Los Angeles in 2000 as president and director of operations at the California Community News, and in 2007 became senior vice president of operations and home delivery for the Los Angeles Times.
As publisher, Newton will have overall responsibility for both the editorial quality and profitability of the community papers. He said though he may have suggestions, he won’t be involved in day-to-day coverage issues.
Times Community News North editor Dan Evans said it’s “a relief” to have someone dedicated to the business side of the operation. In recent years, he said, many decisions tended to take a “one-size-fits-all” approach, instead of looking at what was best for the community papers as opposed to The Times.
Newton said changes within the division over the past few years — closing editions, removing publication days and moving the editorial staff from the city it covered — may have made sense individually at the time they were made, but were not the smartest decisions as a whole.
He said he hopes to reverse that trend.
“We want to make this paper more relevant and stronger, so it can serve the public for the next 100 years,” he said. “We have a journalistic mission, but you can’t do that if you’re not profitable.”
Sitting in his office on the eighth floor of The Times building Friday, Newton said he reads four daily newspapers and values the information they contain. Whenever he talks to people who don’t read the paper, he gives them a spiel to change their mind, telling them about how newspapers keep him well-informed.
In a modified version of that, as he flipped through the pages of one Friday edition, Newton described the “serendipity” of finding interesting and informative stories he wouldn’t have sought out.
“South Korea tosses adultery law,” he said, reading a headline. “Now, are you going to look for that online?”
Newton said he’s considering changes such as increasing publication days, increasing the papers’ reach, and possibly bulking up the print product and the staff.
He said he’s also “going to look very hard at reestablishing a physical presence in Glendale” to be closer to the communities Times Community News North serves. The group moved its offices from Glendale and La Cañada Flintridge to The Times building in downtown Los Angeles in December 2012.
For his part, Evans said he’s hopeful for the future. Naming a dedicated publisher, he said, “shows the Los Angeles Times and the Tribune Publishing company truly value local news and want it to thrive.”