04/03/2006

Five incumbents, two new members elected to AP board

CHICAGO (AP) - Five incumbents and two new members were elected to the board of directors of The Associated Press in results announced Monday at the annual meeting of the news cooperative.

Re-elected to three-year terms were Walter E. Hussman Jr., publisher of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; Douglas McCorkindale, chairman of Gannett Co. Inc.; R. John Mitchell, publisher of the Rutland (Vt.) Herald; Gary Pruitt, chairman, president and CEO of McClatchy Co.; and Jay R. Smith, president of Cox Newspapers Inc.

The new members are Kenneth W. Lowe, president and CEO of E.W. Scripps Co., and Jon K. Rust, publisher of the Southeast Missourian and co-president of Rust Communications.
Two members have retired _ Robert C. Woodworth, president and CEO of Pulitzer Inc., and Lissa Walls Vahldiek, chief operating officer of Southern Newspapers Inc. Vahldiek was vice chairman of the AP board.

Re-appointed to three-year terms on the board were David Westin, president of ABC News, and Bruce T. Reese, president and CEO of Salt Lake City-based Bonneville International Corp., both representing the broadcast industry.

The Associated Press is a not-for-profit cooperative of U.S. newspapers and broadcasters, a global network providing coverage of news, sports, business, entertainment, politics and technology in all media formats to some 15,000 news outlets in more than 120 nations, reaching more than 1 billion people a day.