03/28/2003
Tom Curley, president and publisher of USA Today, named AP CEO to succeed Louis D. Boccardi

NEW YORK (AP) – The Associated Press Board of Directors announced Friday that Tom Curley, president and publisher of USA Today, would succeed Louis D. Boccardi as president and chief executive officer of the world's largest news organization, effective June 1.

Burl Osborne, chairman of the AP board of directors and publisher emeritus of The Dallas Morning News, said Curley, who is 54, would move to AP headquarters in New York in a few weeks. Boccardi is 65, and will retire after 18 years as leader of AP's worldwide operations, half of his 36-year AP career.

Curley will be the 12th person to lead the AP since its founding in 1848.

The AP, a not-for-profit news cooperative of U.S. newspapers and broadcasters, provides more than 15,000 media outlets worldwide and thousands of commercial customers with news stories, photographs, audio, video and multimedia online products.

"Tom Curley is an experienced journalist and news and business executive uniquely qualified to lead The AP," said Osborne following a board meeting Friday.

"His broad experience in news, finance and management and his lifelong passion for excellence in journalism in all its forms make him an ideal choice for an AP already well positioned for future growth."

Osborne said Curley's experience with the smallest as well as the largest newspapers, with television and with digital services, equip him well to navigate today's complex news and information landscape.

Curley has been president and publisher of USA Today, the nation's largest-selling daily newspaper, since 1991. Since 1998 he also has been senior vice president of the newspaper's owner, Gannett Co., Inc., publisher of 100 daily newspapers in the United States.

Curley was the original news staffer on the project that led to the creation of USA Today. He was assigned in 1979 by then-Gannett Chairman Al Neuharth to study the feasibility of a national newspaper. He later worked in every department of the newspaper. In 1986, he became the newspaper's sixth president and in 1991 added the title of publisher.

USA Today circulation under Curley has grown to more than 2.3 million copies a day. The newspaper has launched four national programs recognizing individual achievement in education, created academic All-Star teams for the nation's high schools and colleges and honors for the nation's best teachers.

"I've known Tom for 25 years," said Boccardi. "He is a wonderful choice. The AP prides itself on its accuracy, objectivity, integrity and fairness in all news content, and in Tom Curley we have a leader with the skills, the insight and the deep knowledge of the news industry to help keep AP strong."

When he takes over, Curley will preside over a 155-year old news cooperative that is the backbone of the world's information system. AP has 242 bureaus and a budgeted revenue of more than $500 million. It serves virtually all of the daily newspapers in the United States as well as 5,000 radio and television outlets, plus thousands more in some 120 nations overseas.

AP assets include Associated Press Television News (APTN), an international video news service headquartered in London, a Broadcast division headquartered in Washington, a multimedia Internet operation run by its Digital division, and award-winning news and photo operations that have won 47 Pulitzer prizes, more than any other news organization for the categories in which it can compete.

In the last 20 years, AP has modernized its services worldwide with state-of-the-art equipment for the multimedia news world. The changes have embraced all AP news, photo, graphics and stock and broadcast services and included conversion of AP and the newspaper industry to electronic handling of photos.

As an example of its search for new revenue and new services for members, AP launched an electronic ad delivery system in 1994 that has transmitted more than eight million ads to newspapers. It bought the ad placement and billing operations of the former NICC, of the Newspaper Association of America, and integrated them with AP AdVantage to provide full advertisement placement services to both advertising agencies and newspapers.

Curley began his journalism career at age 15 covering high school basketball for his hometown Easton (Pa.) Express. He continued working for newspapers during college, and joined Gannett's Rochester (N.Y.) Times-Union in 1972 as night city/suburban editor. He became director of information for Gannett in 1976 and began coordinating Gannett's newspaper research projects, which produced more than 50,000 interviews on media use.

He became editor of Gannett's Norwich (Conn.) Bulletin in 1982 and publisher of The Courier-News at Bridgewater, N.J., in 1983 and returned to USA Today in 1985. He holds a political science degree from Philadelphia's La Salle University and a master's degree in business administration from Rochester Institute of Technology. He is a vice chairman of the boards at both schools.

Curley is a trustee of the Ronald McDonald House Charities, serves on the executive board of the newspaper Ad Council and also is the former chairman of the American Advertising Federation's Advertising Hall of Fame. He is married to Marsha Stanley, a former newspaper reporter and freelance writer. They have two daughters.

Boccardi joined the AP as executive assistant to the general news editor in 1967 after eight years with New York newspapers, during which he rose to the position of assistant managing editor of the World-Telegram and Sun and its successor newspaper, The World Journal Tribune. He served as AP managing editor and executive editor, and was elected a vice president in 1975. Prior to assuming the presidency, he served one year as executive vice president and chief operating officer. He and his wife, Joan, have five children.

Boccardi, who has taken a leading role in the news industry on critical First Amendment and freedom of the press issues as well as challenges involving readership and media credibility, is a member and former chairman of the Pulitzer Prize board. He is a graduate of the Columbia University School of Journalism and Fordham College.

The Associated Press (www.ap.org) is the world's oldest and largest news organization, providing coverage of news, sports, business, weather, entertainment, politics and technology in text, audio, video, graphics and photos to 15,000 news outlets with a daily reach of more than one billion people around the world. Its services are distributed by satellite and the Internet to more than 120 nations. AP also is a leader in developing and marketing newsroom technology.

Contact: Jack Stokes
(212) 621-1730