The State Journal-Register last week got a new editor.
Leon Tucker will run the paper's news operation from Lakeland, Florida, where he is executive editor of the Lakeland Ledger owned by Gannett, which also operates the SJ-R. With more than 220 newspapers across the nation, including USA Today, Gannett has the largest circulation of any newspaper company in the United States.
Tucker did not respond to an interview request. It's not clear how long he might be at the helm.
SJ-R staff received less than a week's notice before Tucker took over from Leisa Richardson, who notified staff in a March 22 email that she was taking an "extended leave." She did not say why she was leaving.
"I look forward to reconnecting when I return," she wrote.
Ryan Mahan, SJ-R sports reporter, said it's unclear how long Richardson might be gone.
"At first, we were told up to six months," he said. "Now, it kind of seems like it's going to be at least six months."
During an online meeting, Tucker told the SJ-R staff that he hoped to bring new ideas to the paper, Mahan said, while also acknowledging that he's not an expert on the Land of Lincoln. Tucker's phone line, Mahan said, included an area code from Delaware, one of several stops during a career that's included public relations and government media relations work in addition to working for newspapers.
"I don't know Springfield, I don't know central Illinois, I'm not going to pretend I do – you guys are the Springfield people," said Mahan, paraphrasing what his new boss said at the meeting. "He's kind of going to trust us."
Since graduating from Florida A&M University in 1998, Tucker has worked at 13 places, according to his LinkedIn profile. His longest stint was at the Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, a Gannett publication, where he was local news editor from 2008 until 2010, then managing editor until 2013. He departed to become director of communications for Habitat for Humanity in New Castle, Delaware. After less than three years, he left to become director of communications for the Delaware Department of Labor, a post he held for two years. He then started his own public relations firm. One of his first clients was the city of Wilmington, according to a 2018 story in the Delaware Business Times, which said that his journalism career with Gannett had ended with a layoff.
"He grew disheartened...as journalistic values changed," the Business Times reported. "A layoff in 2013 inspired both a career change and a shift in perspective."
After three years running Leon Tucker Public Relations LLC, Tucker became director of communications for the Executive Leadership Council in Washington, D.C. After one year, he departed to become executive editor of the Ledger in 2021. In a debut column, Tucker wrote that he wanted coverage to be "accurate, fair and meaningful." Time spent away from Florida, where he grew up, Tucker told readers, had given him "a fresh perspective."
"Couple that with an insatiable curiosity, and what you have is someone whose vision on news coverage is unobscured and optimistic," he wrote. His Twitter account is topped by the words "Put Here By God To Serve Others."
In addition to editing reporters' work, Tucker has written straight news stories for the Ledger, including pieces on a pedestrian killed after being hit by a car and two people arrested on suspicion of murder. Mahan said he didn't know whether Tucker will write news for the SJ-R.
"We didn't ask that question (during the online meeting)," Mahan said. "We probably didn't think about it. We haven't had an editor who's done that."
Gannett's public relations department did not respond to requests for an interview but said via email that Tucker has not been named executive editor, and Richardson's name remains on the SJ-R's staff list on the paper's website. "He is providing support to the newsroom on a temporary basis," an unnamed person in the Gannett PR department wrote. In her message to the prior to going on leave, Richardson wrote: "Leon Tucker, executive editor of the Lakeland Ledger, will manage the State Journal-Register newsroom and guide coverage as I temporarily step away for an extended leave. Please forward your columns to Leon."This article has been updated to include comments from Gannett.
