Gannett CEO Dickey says he’ll retire in ’19
Company has expanded reach under his watch
Gannett Co., which operates USA TODAY and 109 local media properties, said Wednesday that President and CEO Robert J. Dickey has decided to retire from the company in 2019.
The Gannett board of directors has initiated a succession plan and engaged an outside search firm to assist in evaluating internal and external candidates. Dickey, 61, will continue to lead the company as president and CEO during the process and will be involved in the search.
He has agreed to remain with the company until May 7, 2019. If a successor is identified before that date, Dickey will stay on as an adviser.
Dickey’s career has been marked by waves of change that have included the spinoff of Gannett’s broadcast division into a separate company and the ongoing transformation of Gannett into a digital news organization.
Dickey said the decision was made in consultation with the board and was driven partly by the desire to spend more time with family.
“I think we’ve done an amazing job of positioning the company for future growth,” Dickey said Wednesday.
Among the accomplishments Dickey said he is most proud of is the formation of the USA TODAY Network and attracting a bigger audience all while demonstrating a dedication to investigative journalism.
He became president & CEO of Gannett in June 2015 and helped oversee the split of USA TODAY’s parent company, Gannett, into two separate publicly traded companies: Gannett, a publishing company, and TEGNA, a broadcasting company with 47 TV stations in 39 markets.
In December 2015, Gannett launched the USA TODAY Network, uniting USA TODAY and its media businesses in the 92 local markets it owned at the time to improve coordination of news coverage and marketing opportunities.
The last three years has seen Gannett add to its portfolio of publications. During 2016, Gannett acquired the Journal Media Group, which includes the Mil- waukee Journal Sentinel and 14 other newspapers, and the North Jersey Media Group, which includes The Record of Bergen County.
Gannett advanced to a new level of journalistic excellence with the USA TODAY Network winning three Pulitzer Prizes in April for in-depth coverage of the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, the heroin epidemic and editorial writing in health care.
“To win three Pulitzers ... was one of my proudest moments,” he said.
Simultaneously, Dickey has overseen the company’s digital growth. The USA TODAY Network in October set a high of
129.9 million monthly unique visitors, a
5 percent increase over the previous year, according to comScore data.
A big part of the company’s strategy under Dickey was to create new revenue streams, such as the digital marketing division ReachLocal, which helps small and medium-sized businesses attract customers.
Recent acquisitions have allowed Gannett to broaden its digital advertising and marketing services sales solutions through LOCALiQ, which gives Gannett nationwide end-to-end digital marketing and advertising services for clients; SweetIQ, a location and reputation management software company; and WordStream, a cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) that provides solutions for local and regional campaigns.
“With acquisitions including the Journal Media Group, ReachLocal, SweetIQ and WordStream we have differentiated Gannett from our peers. It seemed like the perfect time to pass the reins to the next generation,” Dickey said.