Springfield State Journal Register, IL
07-11-06
By TIM LANDIS
BUSINESS EDITOR
The editor of The Daily Breeze, a 70,000-circulation daily newspaper in Torrance,
Calif., has been named publisher of The State Journal-Register and The Courier
in Lincoln.
Sue Schmitt, who has been with the Torrance newspaper since 2001, succeeds
Patrick Coburn. Coburn will retire Sept. 1 after 40 years with the Springfield
newspaper, including more than nine as publisher.
Schmitt, 46, will begin her new duties upon Coburn's retirement.
"Sue emerged at the top of a list of highly qualified candidates from both within
and outside the company," David Copley, chairman, president and CEO of The
Copley Press Inc., said in a statement Monday.
"I look forward to Sue's help in leading The State Journal-Register and sj-r.com
to even higher levels as Springfield's pre-eminent information providers," Copley
said.
The State Journal-Register, The Courier and The Daily Breeze are among nine
daily newspapers published by Copley Press. Copley's other newspapers in
Illinois are The Peoria Journal Star and The Register-Mail in Galesburg.
Her new job marks a return to the Midwest for Schmitt, who spent 18 of her 23
years with Copley in Illinois, including management positions at former Copley
papers in Joliet and Waukegan.
"I look forward to coming back to the Midwest. ... Springfield is an exciting place
that has a lot going on," said Schmitt, a fourth-generation newspaper editor who
grew up in West Des Moines, Iowa. She is a 1981 graduate of Iowa State
University.
Schmitt was editor of the Iowa State Daily and a member of the Iowa State
University Press board of directors.
She worked as a copy editor at the Quad-City Times in Davenport, Iowa, from
1981 to 1983, when she went to work as a copy editor for the News Sun in
Waukegan. The News Sun was one of several northern Illinois newspapers then
operated by Copley.
She was named managing editor for the Northwest County edition in 1990 and
held a number of other management positions with the company before being
named editor of Copley's Naperville-based Sun Publications in 1997.
Schmitt was appointed editor of The Breeze in 2001 and added the titles of
general manager and director of innovation in 2005. The Breeze has 284
employees, including 78 in the editorial department.
The average daily circulation is 70,000.
The State Journal-Register, which is celebrating its 175th year of publication this
year, has 265 full-time and 114 part-time employees, a six-day circulation of
55,000 and Sunday circulation of 64,000.
The Courier has 24 full-time and 12 part-time employees and daily circulation of
approximately 6,000.
"Sue has a lot of experience in innovations that have been made in Torrance,
and I'm sure she'll take advantage of that experience here," said Coburn.
"I'm very, very pleased that Sue will be my successor. She's a quality person who
will fit very well into the community," he added.
Coburn announced in March he planned to retire Sept. 1, nearly 40 years to the
day after he began work as a police reporter at the former Illinois State Register.
He served as managing editor of the Register and then The State Journal-
Register, formed after the Register merged with The Illinois State Journal in
1974, for 25 years.
Coburn was named associate publisher of The State Journal-Register in 1996
and publisher in 1997, succeeding John P. Clarke, who retired.
Schmitt's most recent position as editor and director of innovation for The Breeze
included a major redesign of the newspaper and Web site in response to what
Schmitt said are rapid changes in readership habits.
"Really, what I've been working on the last few years is how we think about news
and delivering information to people," said Schmitt, who added that The Breeze
has grown in readership at a time when most papers have seen declining
circulation.
"I think the entire newspaper world is changing, and newspapers like The State
Journal-Register have the best odds of succeeding, as long as we look to the
future," she said.
Tim Landis can be reached at 788-1536 or tim.landis@sj-r.com.