NEW YORK (AP) — USA Today named veteran journalist and free speech commentator Kenneth Paulson to be its new editor yesterday as the newspaper moves to rebuild its stature after a fraud scandal involving a former star reporter.
Mr. Paulson replaces Karen Jurgensen, who resigned abruptly last week just before executives released a report by a panel of journalism experts that faulted management for not catching Jack Kelley’s misdeeds. Mr. Kelley was found to have committed many acts of fabrication and plagiarism during the past decade.
USA Today, the nation’s top-selling newspaper, also made several other senior-level editorial appointments yesterday.
Mr. Paulson was an editor and reporter for 18 years and held several senior editing positions within Gannett Co., USA Today’s parent company and the largest newspaper publisher in the country. He also was one of USA Today’s founding staff members.
He most recently was executive director of the First Amendment Center, a free speech education organization that is part of the Freedom Forum. Mr. Paulson, who also is a lawyer, wrote a column and was the host of a weekly public television show on free expression issues.
“The newspaper and its staff have faced some trying weeks, but the lessons learned from those challenges will help us build a stronger news operation,” Mr. Paulson said.
The newspaper’s managing editor for news, Hal Ritter, also resigned last week and Brian Gallagher, the executive editor, said he would remain in his position only long enough to make the transition to the next editor.
USA Today announced yesterday that John Hillkirk, former managing editor of the newspaper’s business section, would succeed Mr. Gallagher as executive editor, and that Carol Stevens, former editor of the editorial page, would become managing editor for news.
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