Exclusive: USA Today Just Appointed Its First Female Editor-in-Chief

Exclusive: USA Today Just Appointed Its First Female Editor-in-Chief

The top ranks of the news world just got a little more diverse.

As the chief content officer of publishing giant Gannett (GCI, -0.49%), Joanne Lipman has spent the past year figuring out how to coordinate news coverage between more than 3,000 reporters at 110 different U.S. news publications. Now, she is taking on an additional role: editor-in-chief of the company's flagship publication, USA Today.

In her new role, Lipman says she will be more involved in USA Today's daily operations as well as continue to focus on collaboration between the national publication and the rest of the USA Today network (this includes all of the Gannett's U.S. publications; the holding company's properties also include brands in the U.K.). The titles in the network include The Arizona Republic, The Indianapolis Star, The Des Moines Register, and the Detroit Free Press.

Lipman says the USA Today network differs from other major new organizations in that it has "boots on the ground all over the country." That's dramatically different from the industry as a whole: According to The Washington Post's analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data, one out of every five journalist jobs is in New York, Los Angeles, or Washington, D.C. Lipman says only about one of every 38 of USA Today's reporters are based in one of those three cities.

"We really do represent all of America," Lipman says, noting that the 109 local publications—which are spread across 34 states and Guam—are all over the map in terms of readership demographics. Being in "red states, blue states, big cities, and small towns" helps Lipman and other top editorial leaders "make sure that we understand Americans on both sides of the divide." In total, the network's publications receive about 110 million unique visitors every month.

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