Moonrise
USA Today gets a new publisher, longtime Gannett man Craig Moon.
By
Kathryn S. Wenner
Kathryn S. Wenner, a former AJR associate editor, is a copy editor at the Washington Post.
Craig Moon, a longtime Gannett employee who ran Nashville's Tennessean for more than 10 years, becomes president and publisher of USA Today, replacing Tom Curley, now Associated Press president and CEO (see Bylines, May). Moon, 53, came up on the business side, starting as vice president of advertising for the Cincinnati Enquirer and the Cincinnati Post in 1985. He declined AJR's request for an interview. Frank Gibson, the Tennessean's political editor since 1992, a year after Moon became president and then publisher, says Moon "ran the business side of the newspaper and let the newsroom take care of its job." He was willing to foot the bill, Gibson notes, for a freedom of information case that went to the state Supreme Court. Willy Stern, investigative reporter for the alt-weekly Nashville Scene and author of an award-winning series on the daily, says Moon is "a straight shooter, a hard-nosed businessman who earned the respect of many, including me, for making a bucket-load of money with a third-rate editorial product in Nashville. I actually like the guy," he adds. ###
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