Thursday, October 19, 2006
Newspaper will get new hand at the helm
Wendy Zomparelli, publisher of The Roanoke Times, plans to retire in February.
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Wendy Zomparelli, pre-sident and publisher of The Roanoke Times and roanoke.com since 2000, will retire in February.
She will be succeeded by Debbie Meade, currently advertising director of the newspaper.
The changes were announced Wednesday by Bruce Bradley, president of Landmark Publishing Group. Landmark Communications of Norfolk owns The Roanoke Times.
"That's great news about Wendy and Debbie," said Walter Rugaber, who as a former publisher brought both Zomparelli and Meade onto The Roanoke Times management team. Each served a stint as assistant to the publisher.
"Wendy has done an outstanding job at the paper and as a leader in the community, I think, and will be missed in Roanoke as well as at the paper," Rugaber said.
Zomparelli has served as a member of several community service groups and economic development organizations, including a term as board chair of the United Way of Roanoke Valley and membership on the Roanoke College Board of Trustees.
Roanoke College President Sabine O'Hara said Zomparelli provides valuable local insight.
Zomparelli's six years with United Way were noted for bringing diverse groups of people into leadership positions, said Frank Rogan, president and chief executive officer.
"She reached out to young people, people of color, people who may not be included in traditional leadership roles in the valley, and got them involved in United Way," Rogan said.
Meade serves other groups in the community.
She is chair-elect of Planned Parenthood of the Blue Ridge and secretary-elect of the Western Virginia Better Business Bureau.
"Debbie, I'm sure, will do an outstanding job as well," Rugaber said.
Meade has worked in The Roanoke Times' news, circulation and advertising departments and was human resources director for seven years.
"I've been all over the place," Meade said. "I'm really an example of a utility player."
One of Meade's first assignments as Rugaber's assistant was to oversee the market research that led to the paper's New River Current section, giving that community an individual paper within The Roanoke Times.
Zomparelli, 56, began work with The Roanoke Times as a features writer in 1984. She became features editor, then editor of the newspaper in 1995.
Zomparelli became publisher in 2000, succeeding Rugaber.
Meade, 50, who has been with the newspaper since 1983, will succeed Zomparelli on Feb. 12, 2007.
Zomparelli said she doesn't expect to be unemployed; she plans to announce her next move by the end of this year.
"I've been thinking about retiring for about a year now. This is the longest I've ever been in a job," Zomparelli said. "I've really been feeling like it's time for me to try something new."
Zomparelli said she has talked to other media companies about possibly helping them try to make "some of the changes that Landmark has made and discover ways in which to be more innovative."
Zomparelli's tenure as publisher includes the acquisition of a new printing press and the building that houses it on Salem Avenue, and the online emergence of roanoke.com as a profit maker within the company.
The Web site was launched in 1995, when few in the newspaper industry knew how to use cyberspace.
Roanoke.com's operating numbers turned from red to black in 2002, and revenue has increased every year since. Web site revenue this year is up 51 percent over 2005, Zomparelli said.
The new Heidelberg Mainstream 80 press gave the paper the ability to print full color on every page, and larger advertisers gained better-quality ads. The press also lets small and medium-sized businesses afford color ads.
"Smaller businesses can put very punchy messages out to their customers and get great results from that," Zomparelli said.
Newspapers' opportunity to provide a respected, authoritative source of news online and in print gives the industry an exciting future, Zomparelli said. Contrary to beliefs in the early days of the Internet, users have shown a desire for information from formal sources that have authority, she said.
Meade said she shares Zomparelli's view that newspapers' future isn't dead, but just changing.
"I'm very optimistic about the future of our business," Meade said. "I believe that we are in the information business, not just the print business any longer.
"People look to us to provide information, and we need to increasingly meet that need in any way that they seek to get it."
