Thursday, January 14, 1999
Enquirer names new editor/VP
Bushee was editor of Reno Gazette-Journal
BY JOHN ECKBERG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Ward Bushee
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Ward H. Bushee, the top newsroom executive at the Reno (Nev.) Gazette-Journal since 1990, was appointed editor/vice president of The Cincinnati Enquirer on Wednesday.
Mr. Bushee (pronounced Bu-SHE), 49, has been editor of the Reno newspaper since July 1994 and was executive editor from July 1990 to July 1994. The Reno paper and The Enquirer are among 75 daily newspapers owned by Gannett Co. Inc.
“He has extensive experience in the industry and has long been recognized as one of the leading editors in the company,” said Enquirer Publisher and President Harry M. Whipple. “He has a track record that few have.”
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BUSHEE FILE
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• Born: Feb. 13, 1949, in Redding, Calif. Grew up in the Monterey Bay area.
• Education: Bachelor's in history, San Diego State University (1971).
• Career: Editor of Reno (Nev.) Gazette-Journal since July 1994; executive editor from July 1990 to July 1994.
• Executive editor of the Argus Leader at Sioux Falls, S.D., October 1986 to July 1990.
• Assistant managing editor/sports at Gannett Westchester Newspapers, September 1985 to October 1986.
• Assistant content editor/sports at USA Today, August 1982 to September 1985.
• Sports editor at the Marin Independent Journal in Marin County, Calif., April 1979 to August 1982.
• From 1973 through 1979, he worked in various reporting and editing roles at newspapers in Salinas, Gilroy and Watsonville, Calif.
• Family: Wife, Claudia; daughter Mary, 10; and son Ward, 13.
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Mr. Bushee promised to work to produce a high-quality metropolitan newspaper with a circulation that will continue to grow.
“We've heard for so long that this is a dying business,” Mr. Bushee said. “In truth, it has been a stagnant business. I want to keep the momentum going that has been building for several years. I want to make the paper better, and we have the potential to do that.
“This is a good newspaper-reading community and a good staff.”
Mr. Bushee succeeds Lawrence K. Beaupre, who left the newspaper in November to become a corporate executive at Gannett. He had been editor since December 1992.
Phil Currie, senior vice president/news for Gannett's newspaper division, said Mr. Bushee is talented and driven.
“He is a strong editor who has done a great job in all the roles he's been in around the country,” he said. “He is an editor who has been innovative — an editor who has been very good with his people and very good with the community.”
Mr. Bushee, who visited with newsroom staff throughout the afternoon Wednesday, said he was honored to lead an award-winning newspaper into a new era.
But Mr. Bushee acknowledged that The Enquirer was emerging from a turbulent period.
The newspaper in June 1998 renounced a series of articles about the business practices of Cincinnati-based Chiquita Brands International Inc. after it was learned the series was based in part on stolen voice-mail messages. The newspaper apologized to Chiquita and paid the company more than $10 million.
The lead reporter, Michael Gallagher, was fired by the paper and later pleaded guilty to two felony charges of illegally accessing the Chiquita voice-mail system.
“We need to move beyond that now,” Mr. Bushee said.
Mr. Currie said investigative reporting will not be discouraged at The Enquirer. “That's the view that Harry (Whipple) would have. That's the view that Ward would have,” Mr. Currie said. “It's a significant role for any newspaper in any community.”
While in Reno, Mr. Bushee was awarded several top editing and newsroom management honors by the company. He was named Gannett Editor of the Year in 1992 and 1996 and was a six-time Gannett President's Ring Winner, every year since the award was established in 1992. He is also holder of the Chairman's Ring, signifying five President's Ring awards.
Mr. Bushee, born in Redding, Calif., and raised in the Monterey Bay area, has been involved with newspapers all his life. He pushed a broom, delivered papers and was a part-time reporter at the Watsonville (Calif.) Register-Pajaronian, where his father was editor. He worked at several California newspapers and joined Gannett when The Californian at Salinas was bought by the company in 1977.
His Reno tenure was marked by good writing and sound editing, said Mark Lundahl, assistant managing editor at the Reno Gazette-Journal. The paper received Gannett's Most Improved Newspaper award in 1991, was Gannett's Newspaper of the Year in 1992 and received a Gold Medal and Newspaper of the Year award from Gannett in 1996.
“He is a real creative guy,” Mr. Lundahl said. “He knows what he wants, and he was able to inspire a bunch of us. You look back and you don't believe all you've accomplished. And that's a good feeling.”
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