EDITORIAL DIRECTOR APPOINTED BY MCGOFF

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000400260019-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 8, 2004
• Sequence Number: 19
• Content Type: NSPR

ro d For R ease 2005/01/12 : CIA-RDP88-013 0 r 6, 1r e ium, for 1971.
appointed by McGoff
ohn P. McGoff, president and chief
executive officer of Panax Corporation,
has appointed James R. Whelan as edito-
rial director of the company's news-
papers.
At the same time, McGoff said Whelan
had been elected a vicepresident of the
corporation at the July 25 meeting of the
company's Board of Directors.
"We are committed at Panax,"
McGoff said, "to publishing the finest
newspapers of our size in America,
newspapers with a strong and vigorous
editorial personality. We have conducted
a nationwide search, lasting several
months, to find the right person to give
us the leadership to reach those goals,
"We are confident that Mr. Whelan is
that person, because of his record of
accomplishment as a reporter, writer,
and editor, at the local, national and
international levels, because those skills
were tempered and broadened by expo-
sure as a business executive and as a
publisher, and because of his personal
qualities."
McGoff said Whelan. presently presi-
dent and editor of the I lialeah (Fla.) Pub-
lishing Company, would assume his new
duties at the Company's East Lansing
headquarters on August 1.
He said Whelan's primary respon-
sibilities would center on working with
the editors of Panax newspapers in order
to develop a better flow of news and
ideas among them and to and from the
Panax bureaus in Lansing, New York
and Washington.
"We have a tremendous and largely-
-untapped reservoir of talent," McGoff
said, "in the persons of the 400 repor-
ters, editors and writers and photo-
journalists on our newspapers.
"Harnessing and channeling all that
energy and ability, so that stories and
ideas are shared as widely as they ought
to be, can only enhance all of our papers.
In a similar vein, we need more two-way
communication between our papers and
bureaus."
McGoff said Whelan also would have
direct responsibility for developing an
overall editorial personality for the group
ch a 'personality,' McGciff said,
'Won
, of course, in no way relieve our
In 1971, he joined the Mi,tarni (Fla.)
News as assistant managing c itor, and
was promoted to Managing E for the
following year. At the end of 1973, e left
that newspaper in a dispute between the
editor, a close associate, and the news-
rightly on issues. Instead, too many have paper's owners.
retreated timidly to board rooms and For the next two years, he worked as a
cashier's cages, leaving the arena of free-lance writer and consultant.
ideas to syndicated columnists and hired In 1976, together with five partners, he
hands. acquired a failing, 32-year-old weekly,
"We believe in-and will continue to the Home News, and nourished it back
practice-rugged, independent, local to health. Inasmuch as 63% of the
ged, independent leadership."
McGoff noted that the past few years
have been a time of rapid growth fo;
Panax.
"In 1972, just five years ago," he
"we published eight dailies and 25
lies in 3 states. Now, we publish
dailies and 43 weeklies in Michigan
linois, Florida and Washington, D.C.
"During the early years of our growth,
we were fortunate to enjoy the expert
guidance of Don Hoenshell as our edito-
rial director. Since Don moved on three
years ago to become editor of the Sac-
ramento (Calif.) Union (owned by
another sister company controlled by
McGoff), we have felt the increasing
need for another firm hand to assure that
we grow in quality as well as in size and
number
the partners later lancc d a second,
,ual publication, the Hialeah
Las Noticias de Hialeah.
Whelan, 44, comes to Panax after al
professional career that began 27 years
ago as a copy boy on the Buf ulo (N.Y.)
Courier-Express. In the years since, he
has climbed through the ranks to just
about every level on the journalistic lad-
der. l-le also has won numerous honors,
including a Nieman Fellowship at Har-
vard (1966-1967), and the Citation of Ex-
cellence of the Overseas Press Club of
America.
From the Courier-Express, he went to
the Buffalo bureau of the United Press
International as one of the youngest staff
correspondents of the news agency in the'
county. With two years out for Army
service, and one for the Nieman Fellow
ship, he remained with UPI until 1968,
serving in Buffalo, Boston, Providence,
New York, Buenos Aires, Caracas and
San Juan, as a reporter, editor, news
editor, foreign correspondent, bureau
manager, country manager and, finally,1
division manager.
In 1968, he was recruited by Interna-1
tional Telephone & Telegraph Company
for a newly-created position orf the Cor-
porate Relations staff, moving later to
line management as Vice President-
local .ditors of their responsibility to operations of ITT Western Hemisphere:
formulate editorial opinions on the full Directories, a subsidiary with branches
range of issues, nor impinge on their throughout Latin America.
rightful autonomy. l-Ic left ITT in 1970 to return to news- {
"Yet we do feel that too many pub- papering, as Washington-based Latin
lishers and others in positions of trust America correspondent of the Scripps-
and responsibility for newspapers have Howard NewsNner Alliance. It wise
abdicated the one, e~Ap}birr~rtsdcrriitibiRelef 6e4ODS 1Il 188}Od'$15R000400260019-3
ity: to speak clearly, forcefully and forth- award in the category, best reporting on
EDITOR & PUBLISHER for August 13, 1977 1