Clarissa Williams is no longer publisher of the State Journal-Register.
Illinois Times has confirmed that Williams was let go today. Her replacement will be Rosanne Cheeseman, former publisher of the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pennsylvania, which, like the SJ-R, is owned by GateHouse Media. GateHouse acquired the Pennslvania paper in January.
Williams became publisher of the SJ-R in 2014 and is one of at least six publishers who’ve worked at the daily since GateHouse Media bought the State Journal-Register in 2006. The first to leave was Sue Schimdt, who was hired by Copley Press, the newspaper’s prior owner, in 2005 and left in 2007, reportedly to take advantage of a golden parachute arranged by Copley. Prior to Schmidt, the paper had just two publishers between 1968 and 2005, with Jack Clarke’s tenure lasting 28 years and his successor Pat Coburn’s term lasting a decade.
Contact Bruce Rushton at brushton@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Apr 21-27, 2016.
