Friday, April 9, 2010

Ex-Lee VP named CEO of Texas newspaper company

Former Lee Enterprises vice president Jim Hopson has been named chief executive officer of ASP Westward in Houston.

Hopson was publisher of the Wisconsin State Journal from 2000 to 2006 and was a Lee vice president for publishing. He retired from the State Journal to walk across the country and write a book. Hopson has served on the board of Westward since July 2009. Westward publishes 60 daily and weekly papers in Texas and Colorado.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Oh, I feel terrible for that company. As a former WSJ employee, I suffered under Hopson's arrogant, imbecilic "leadership." I crossed over to his bad side in about 2003, when I argued with him that the WSJ should be investing more in its Web site, since none of the young people I knew in Madison ever read the print version. Madison is a town of 45,000 college students.

Nonsense, he told me. There's no money or future in the Web, he said. And this was in 2003!

He's also the genius who negotiated the Pulitzer sale and then cashed out at $40 a share and retired.

Pity that Texas company.