Past NABJ President Has No New Job Lined Up
Will Sutton, a deputy managing editor of North Carolina’s Raleigh News & Observer, former editor of the Gary (Ind.) Post-Tribune and past president of the National Association of Black Journalists, is leaving the paper but has no firm job lined up, he told Journal-isms Saturday night.
“Sometimes you say, ‘Lord, I’ll put my faith in you and allow you to lead me’,” he said.
Sutton, who turns 50 next month, has been at the paper since 1996, joining the 180,774-circulation daily as assistant managing editor for recruiting. Later, he became deputy managing editor overseeing design, photography, graphics and the news desk.
“Beginning Tuesday, Will Sutton will have a new temporary assignment,” managing editor John Drescher announced to the staff by e-mail on Friday. “He will work out of Durham and will assess our opportunities there. Our launch of The Durham News has won new readers there, but we think there is more we can do. Will will attend public meetings, address community organizations, meet with business leaders and talk with readers to gain insight about our future strategy. In about a month, when he finishes that assignment, he will leave The N&O.”
After outlining some of the jobs Sutton has held in the newsroom, Drescher continued:
“Those are his formal roles. Will has played many other roles in our newsroom -? mentor, coach, friend, advisor. Will loves newspapers and the people who produce them. He has a passion for newspapering and brings his trademark enthusiasm to the newsroom every day. He has hired many of the journalists in this newsroom and always has worked to help them grow as people and as journalists.”
“I’ve been at the News & Observer and with McClatchy for eight and a half years. It’s time for a new challenge and a new opportunity for me,” Sutton told Journal-isms. “I have a lot of people that I’ve helped move ahead at the N&O. They know what to do and I don’t need to be there to help them do it — they’re good people doing good work.”
He will be the second deputy managing editor this year to leave without a new job. Bonnie Jo Mount departed April 14.
Sutton was hired under executive editor Anders Gyllenhaal. But Gyllenhaal left in 2002 to become editor of the Star Tribune in Minneapolis. Melanie Sill then moved up from managing editor.
Barry Saunders, a columnist at the paper who had worked with Sutton in Gary, said Sutton had given the N&O a presence among journalists of color around the country. “Every time I went to NABJ, they said, ‘how do I get to the N&O to be with Will Sutton?’ They thought it was a progressive paper.” And to journalists of color in the newsroom, “Will gave us a real presence. Will’s profile with NABJ definitely stood us in good stead.”
According to the annual census of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the N&O has a newsroom that is 21 percent people of color. Sutton said that was an increase of more than 10 percent from when he arrived. It has two department heads of color, he said.
A 1987-88 Nieman Fellow who in 1996 received the Maynard Institute’s Diversity Award, Sutton was on the fast track at Knight Ridder after 10 years at the Philadelphia Inquirer. He was deputy city editor when he left for the Post-Tribune. He was managing editor, then editor of that newspaper, which Knight Ridder eventually sold in 1997.
It was while at the Inquirer that Sutton and Juan Gonzalez, then a competing reporter at the Philadelphia Daily News, had conversations that eventually led to the Unity coalition of black, Hispanic, Asian American and Native American journalists.
He was president of NABJ from 1999 to 2001, during the organization’s 25th anniversary and during a period of financial turmoil for which Sutton accepted part of the blame. Gonzalez later became president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
“I’ve had a good run at The N&O and with McClatchy,” owners of the N&O, Sutton told Journal-isms. “They fully supported my NABJ presidency, 1999-2001; sought and supported my newsroom diversity efforts and made them their own and gave me the chance to supervise more parts of a newsroom (design, graphics, photography, features, sports and the copy desk) than most editors ever lead in their whole careers.”
Although he said he was looking at jobs in academia and in newspapers, Sutton has also set up a consulting firm, Results With Will, 303 Swiss Lake Drive, Cary, NC 27513-4795, at (919) 469-9199, ResultsWithWill@aol.com
He and his wife of 22 years, Cheryl Franey Sutton, have a 10-year-old son, Tre.
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