R-M publisher steps down

Cooper tells staff he will pursue other interests

Friday, November 2, 2007

By JOHN R. PULLIAM

The Register-Mail

GALESBURG - Don Cooper, publisher of The Register-Mail since July 2, 1990, surprised newspaper staffers today by announcing his resignation, effective at the end of this month.

Cooper told department managers of his decision, then told the rest of the staff during an 8:30 a.m. meeting in the newspaper's newsroom.

In a brief statement, Cooper said, "It has been a privilege for me to be part of this newspaper and to be associated with a wonderful group of professionals for more than 17 years. The next publisher of The Register-Mail will be lucky to work with people like you."

Cooper said he has no immediate plans.

"While I hate to use the phrase 'leaving to explore other opportunities,' I haven't been able to come up with anything else. So, I'm exploring other opportunities. This is a good time in life to do that," he said.

Managing editor Tom Martin, who has worked with Cooper since July 2003, said, "Don Cooper is a class act."

Martin said he was surprised by the announcement. "He's had such a good career here," Martin said. "The newspaper, on the editorial page, will really miss his writing; that will be hard to replace."

Martin, who came to The Register-Mail from the Bureau County Republican in Princeton, said Cooper taught him a lot in the four-plus years the two worked together.

"He has a lot of knowledge, particularly about city politics and government in general," Martin said. "Being an editor before he was publisher, he knows news. The Register-Mail will miss his leadership and his shoes will be difficult to fill."

Tony Scott, regional vice president of GateHouse Media, echoed that sentiment and told Martin Friday that a search has begun to fill the position. In the meantime, Scott will be interim publisher.

"I'd like to thank Don for his many years of service and wish him well," Scott said Friday.

During the meeting before an overflow crowd of employees from all newspaper departments, Cooper said although he is leaving, his job remains the same until Nov. 30.

"In the meantime, for the next 29 days, I will try to do what I've tried to do throughout my tenure, and what I hoped I've encouraged you to do: serve our readers, serve our advertisers, serve our printing customers and serve our community," Cooper said.

Cooper leaves after The Register-Mail had one of its best contest years in recent memory. The newspaper won 23 Associated Press awards and seven Illinois Press Association awards. The four-part series on poverty in Galesburg took first prize in the national Inland Press competition. That series also took first place for small newspapers in the state in the AP competition and second in the medium class, up to 40,000 circulation, in the IPA contest.

Cooper earned first- and second-place awards for editorial writing in the Illinois Press Association contest this year. In 2002, he directed the news coverage of Maytag's shutdown announcement that earned a Ring of Truth award for deadline reporting from Copley Newspapers.

In addition, The Register-Mail in 2007 won the general excellence competition and the sweepstakes award as the best small daily in the state from AP, while finishing third to the Aurora Beacon News and the Northwest Herald of Crystal Lake in the IPA contest, in which the newspaper competed against publications that have much larger circulations than The Register-Mail.

The Register-Mail was sold to GateHouse Media in the spring of 2007. When Cooper began his tenure in Galesburg, the newspaper was owned by the Peoria Journal Star ESOP.

A 1977 graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia, Cooper worked for Winsor Newspapers from 1977 to 1989. He began his career as a sportswriter in Boonville, Mo. He became editor, then was promoted to assistant publisher. Cooper also worked for Winsor newspapers in Canton and Jefferson City, Mo., was publisher of the Review Atlas in Monmouth, and editor/publisher of the Austin (Texas) Business Journal. From 1989-1990, he was the publisher of Peak to Peak, a business magazine in Estes Park, Colo.

"The Register-Mail, as an institution, transcends any individual and I've always hoped the people who came here to work recognized their part of the continuum," he said during an interview. "It's important to get to know what happened before and to know what's happening now. The issues and struggles Galesburg has now are the same as 50 years ago and 75 years ago. I think the opportunities are as great as they have ever been. We've been telling the story."