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 .