User:Provoeditor

Randy Wright

Executive editor, the Daily Herald, Provo, Utah, since July 2002. Formerly assistant managing editor supervising features, photography and presentation at the Arizona Daily Star, a Pulitzer newspaper until it was acquired in 2005 by Lee Enterprises (along with the Daily Herald and other properties).

Wright entered journalism in 1978 as a reporter at a weekly newspaper group in central Utah. He advanced to weekly editorial writer and then was named managing editor. He has worked at 10 newspapers around the West, both large and small. He served as a reporter and copy editor at the Ogden (UT) Standard-Examiner, then managing editor of the Sun-Advocate, a twice weekly owned by the same company. Moving to California in 1983, he managed the sports desk at the Bakersfield Californian and held a similar position at the Modesto Bee. He then joined the Press Democrat in Santa Rosa as design director in 1986. As part of the New York Times Co., Wright participated in a number of consulting projects, rethinking the content and presentation of NYT regional newspapers in Florida and California. He served as assistant managing editor at the San Diego Union-Tribune for seven years, among other things leading the redesign that accompanied the merger of Copley's morning Union and evening Tribune.

He has since developed new content and presentation approaches at a number of daily newspapers, including the Arizona Daily Star, The Bulletin (Bend, OR), Santa Maria Times (CA), Idaho Statesman, The Pantagraph (IL), The Garden Island (HI), California Bar Journal and Daily Herald (UT). He has received numerous awards for news and feature presentation from the Society for News Design, including two Silvers, one Bronze and many awards of excellence over 18 years. He also shared in the Pew Center's Batten Award for civic journalism in 1998 at the Idaho Statesman. Projects at the Daily Herald in 2007 include the creation of a Herald TV news channel in cooperation with a local college and iProvo, a provider of fiber-optic television, Internet and digital phone services.

He continues his editorial writing, winning numerous awards including first place in 2004-05 in the SPJ Utah Headliner's contest and a sweep of first, second and third in the 2005-06 contest. He has been an invited speaker at professional conferences including the National Newspaper Association, California Society of Newspaper Editors and Society for News Design. He is a member of the American Society of Newspaper Editors.