President to Retire From Times Co.; Successor Named

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President to Retire From Times Co.; Successor Named
By DAVID CARR

Russell T. Lewis, president and chief executive of The New York Times Company since 1997, plans to retire by the end of 2004, when he will be succeeded by Janet L. Robinson, senior vice president for newspaper operations, the company announced yesterday.

Until the succession, Ms. Robinson will serve as chief operating officer and executive vice president. In other announcements made yesterday, Leonard P. Forman, senior vice president and chief financial officer of the Times Company, was promoted to executive vice president and chief financial officer of the company. Scott H. Heekin-Canedy, senior vice president for circulation for The New York Times, was named president and general manager of the newspaper.

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Ms. Robinson, 53, has been with the Times Company for 21 years, and her promotion means she will join a fairly small group of women who are chief executives of major companies. She was named senior vice president for newspaper operations in 2001, retaining her position as president and general manager of The Times, which she assumed in 1996. She has been responsible for the operations of all of the company's newspapers, including The Times, The International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe and 16 other newspapers.

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"I think that this company is going to be a growing business," Ms. Robinson said. "As we have said in any number of presentations, we are agnostic in terms of what platform it appears on and think we have a great opportunity to explore more ways to bring our brand of news to people."


The company also announced yesterday that its board had nominated Doreen A. Toben, chief financial officer of Verizon Communications, to stand for election as a director at its annual meeting on April 13.

The New York Times Company, which had 2003 revenues of $3.2 billion, owns in addition to its newspaper group 8 network-affiliated television stations, 2 New York City radio stations and more than 40 Web sites, including NYTimes.com and Boston.com.


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/20/business/media/20paper.html