Gannett’s Joanne Lipman on the Power of USA TODAY NETWORK

Charlene Weisler What formed your early professional years Why go into print mediaJoanne Lipman When I interned at the Saturday Review I would commute into Manhattan with my father and would read his newspaper on the bus ride He was a lifelong reader of The Wall Street Journal and I fell in love with the paper too Working for The Wall Street Journal became a goal for me When I graduated from college I joined the Journal as a reporterCharlene Tell me about your time at The Wall Street Journal and Conde NastJoanne I worked at The Wall Street Journal for 22 years originally as a reporter then as advertising columnist then as an editor for page one I was then asked to create a new section The Weekend Journal which led to the opportunity to create Personal Journal and then to oversee creation of the Saturday paper in 2005 as a WSJ Deputy Managing Editoramp160 I was recruited by Si Newhouse to join Conde Nast and create a new business magazine It was a tough but enticing choice since I am a business junkie I loved the idea of combining the Conde Nast sensibility of writing and design to report on the bigger picture connecting the dots between business and culture This was something that hadnamp8217t been done before Previously you might see an article in the arts section about a man running Lincoln Center and a separate article in the business section about a man running a hedge fund But it was the same guy So in 2007 we launched Portfolio which was both good and bad timing from the financial excesses to the financial crisisCharlene There was an interesting side story to thisJoanne Yes In mid2008 we asked Michael Lewis to write a cover story that we planned to run at the end of the year about Wall Streetamp8217s annus horribulus When the crash happened that fall we rushed out his piece as the cover story about the financial crisisamp160 It became the germ of an idea for a book and film called The Big ShortCharlene Portfolio closed in 2009 amid many other magazine closings What came nextJoanne I wrote a book and kept my foot in the newsroom advising media companies including CNN and Yahoo looking at strategic issues while reinventing or creating new areas of coverage I worked on several television production projects as well I was then approached by Gannett which led to an exciting opportunity A year ago Gannett was a holding company that owned USA TODAYamp160and 92 separate news organizations which we used to call newspapers We were essentially siloed This past summer we split into two companies the television properties moved into a company called Tegna and the 93 news organizations 92 local plus USA TODAY became the new Gannettamp160 In December Gannett announced the creation of the USA TODAYamp160NETWORK which brings together all of those 93 titles into a single nationwide news network United we are now the largest news organization in the country with more than 3100 journalists and more than 100 million unique visitors to our sites every month We also just acquired the Journal Media Group which will add an additional 14 markets We are truly distinctive in that we have properties throughout the country feet on the ground in red and blue states in cities and rural areas and not just on the coasts I joined in January as Chief Content Officer and EditorinChief of USA TODAY NETWORKCharlene What do you see as the future for printJoanne Our newspapers actually publish a fraction of what a reader gets to read online so the future of news is really digital and we have turned our business into a digitalfirst operation The audience is going more digital and increasingly mobile At the same time I have been hearing for the past 20 years that print is dead We still see a place for print because of the amazing loyalty of many readers And with our access to high profile people politicians leaders and celebrities they ask amp8220Will this appear in print tooamp8221 There is the power of print as an imprimatur it is clear that print still has relevance for many peopleCharlene Tell me about your newest bookJoanne Over the years I attended many Womenamp8217s Leadership conferences but it was like preaching to the converted I grew up in a heavily male environment at work writing about a predominately male area of the industry business so I am comfortable in that environment But I found that conferences were missing a piece unintentionally demonizing and not sharing issues with menamp160 So I wrote an article titled amp8220Women at Work A Guide for Menamp8221 It went viral and l ended up spending a year researching a book on the topic which I currently am writingamp160 I found interesting elements that turned conventional wisdom on its head For example there is a lot of discussion about a wage gap between men and women The common Census figure of 79 cents to the dollar is not apples to apples When we looked at the wage data apples to apples for women and men in the same job we found that there really is a wage gap Unconscious bias is a major issue as well Men are four times more likely to interrupt a woman in a meeting than a man Men starting their first jobs out of college are eight times more likely to negotiate their starting salary than women There are many subtle things at play and there is increasing research on how to bridge the gap Everyone has implicit biases You can measure your own bias at httpsimplicitharvardeduimplicitCharlene How can we overcome gender biasJoanne Awareness may be one way to overcome it as well as wage gap audits But at the end of the day the best way to correct it is with financial incentives and making diversity a priority in hiring training retaining and promoting talent The successful male executives I interviewed say that this is a business imperative not because it is a socially acceptable thing to do but because it is good for businessCharlene What is your view on mentorshipJoanne It is incredibly important but there is a difference between a mentor and a sponsor A mentor helps and advises while a sponsor is in a position to do something about it Men are sponsored more than women because in a male dominated company it is easy to sponsor someone who reminds us of ourselves when we were younger Many companies are creating formal programs to address thisCharlene What advice would you give a college student today seeking a career in print or journalismJoanne It has always been tough to make a living as a writer Being a journalist is like being a musician or an actor it is a calling But there are still opportunities My advice is that you may think that you need to go to New York or Washington to get a writing job but at Gannett we are spread across the entire country Most of our 3100 journalists are not on either coast Have an open mind where you decide to startI am very proud of the power of our nationwide news network which continues to do awardwinning investigative news coverage Consider two of our recent stories The lack of proper tracking of sexual predator teachers across state lines which led to changes in the system and the investigation into lead in drinking water in hundreds of schoolsamp160We were able to localize each story showing the power of a nationwide network of journalistsThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageMyersBizNet management or associated bloggers

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Gannett’s Joanne Lipman on the Power of USA TODAY NETWORK

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Charlene Weisler

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Gannett’s Joanne Lipman on the Power of USA TODAY NETWORK

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