Philadelphia Inquirer names Lisa Hughes as next publisher

PHILADELPHIA >> The Philadelphia

Inquirer announced Tuesday that Lisa Hughes, a member of the company’s board and former publisher of The New Yorker, will take over as publisher next month.

She will be the first female publisher in the newspaper’s 190-year history. She will replace publisher and chief executive officer Terrance C.Z. Egger after he retires, the paper reported Tuesday.

Hughes, 59, served as the vice president and publisher of The New Yorker magazine until 2017 and will take on the new role at the Inquirer on Feb. 3.

She announced her plans to build on Egger’s strategies to diversity revenue sources to maintain the company’s mission to preserve local journalism.

“Nothing matters more in our democracy than local journalism,” she said, “to speak truth to power, to hold elected officials accountable, to celebrate our sports teams’ wins and losses, and to report on justice reform and the education system and gun violence, all of which has been part of The Inquirer’s beat for 190 years.”

Her predecessor had served in the company’s top role for four years, during a time when the company’s ownership was donated to the nonprofit Lenfest Institute for Journalism.

Hughes had worked alongside New Yorker editor David Remnick in steering the weekly magazine’s transformation from a legacy print brand into the digital age.

Even though Hughes hasn’t worked in local news or at a daily newspaper, Josh Kopelman, Chairman of the Inquirer’s board, believes she is “well-positioned to build upon the substantial foundation created by Terry Egger.”