Lee Enterprises Appoints VanStrydonck Publisher in Missoula
He succeeds David Fuselier, who is retiring after a 35-year career spanning 10 newspapers, including three in Montana.
Mary Junck, Lee chairman and chief executive office, said VanStrydonck will continue to oversee Lee's newspapers and classified advertising publications in Oregon and Washington, as well as provide companywide leadership for production. As Missoulian publisher, he also will oversee the Ravalli Republic in Hamilton, the Messenger and the Autofinder.
"As both the newspaper staff and the community will soon discover, Missoula is getting another of our finest leaders," she said. "Like David, John has earned an impressive reputation for producing outstanding community newspapers."
Greg Veon, Lee vice president for publishing, said Fuselier has agreed to serve as a consultant for other Lee newspapers over the next year. "We couldn't talk him out of retiring, but we're extremely fortunate that other publishers will benefit from his extraordinary leadership and business management skills, especially his ability to grow and develop a strong management team."
Fuselier will stay in Missoula until his formal retirement in February, assisting with transition issues and completing community obligations, which include chairing the capital campaign for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Missoula.
VanStrydonck and his wife, Mary Ann, will move from Spokane to Missoula immediately.
VanStrydonck joined Lee in 1981 as production manager at Madison Newspapers and in 1986 became publisher of the Globe-Gazette in Mason City, Iowa. In 1991, he was appointed president and chief executive officer of NAPP Systems, a manufacturer of photopolymer printing plates. He became publisher of the Rapid City Journal in South Dakota in 1994 and continued as chairman and chief executive officer of NAPP Systems until Lee sold that business in 1997. He was appointed vice president in June 2000.
In Rapid City, he was a member of the board of the United Way and the board of the Black Hills Playhouse. He also was active in the chamber of commerce.
"I am excited about the opportunity to become a part of the Missoulian staff," VanStrydonck said. "The paper has a tradition of great journalism and because of that tradition is also a successful business."
Before joining Lee, VanStrydonck was production manager of the Chillicothe Gazette and assistant production manager at the Wall Street Journal. He is a graduate of Monroe Community College in Rochester, N.Y., and has a degree in printing production management from Rochester Institute of Technology.
"John and I have been friends and colleagues for many years," Fuselier said. "I have admired his work and sought out his advice for at least a decade now. He's been to Missoula many times and knows the area. There is nobody into whose hands I would rather place the Missoulian and its sister publications."
In addition to fund raising for the new Big Brothers Big Sisters facility, Fuselier serves on the board or directors and the finance committee of Community Medical Center and is a director of the Missoula Area Economic Development Corporation. He also is on the President's Advisory Council of the University of Montana. This summer he completed a three-year term on the board of the Missoula Chamber of Commerce.
Fuselier joined Lee Enterprises 23 years ago as editor of the Independent Record in Helena after reporting and editing positions at the Kalispell Interlake, Colorado Springs Sun and Cincinnati Enquirer. After Helena, he served as editor of The Bismarck Tribune in North Dakota, editor of the La Crosse Tribune in Wisconsin, publisher of the Muscatine Journal in Iowa and publisher of the Quad-City Times in Davenport, Iowa.
Fuselier launched several community projects during his 4 1/2 years as Missoulian publisher, including Celebrate 2000, a grass-roots effort to create a vision for Missoula's future that resulted in the birth of the Celebrate Missoula Community Foundation and task forces dedicated to funding small neighborhood projects and planning a community center and central park area. He also initiated the recently completed Salute to the Greatest Generation to honor the Missoula area's World War II generation.
Fuselier said he and his wife, Karin, and daughter, Jenna, are excited about moving forward to their next stage of life, tending to their summer home and family business interests in northern Wisconsin as well as their small ranch in Colorado, David's native state. He also will do special projects for Lee in addition to consulting work.
There were many highs and lows in his 35-year career, Fuselier said, including getting bawled out by Ted Kennedy and dodging a can of Coke hurled by Bobbie Knight. But he says he's happy to have spent the last 23 years with Lee, "working with wonderful people in Montana and the Midwest. My goal was always to leave everything a little better than I found it," he said. "I hope I have done that. But in the end it is always the people you remember."
Lee Enterprises is based in Davenport, Iowa. Lee owns 39 daily newspapers and a joint interest in six others, along with associated online services. Lee also owns more than 175 weekly newspapers, shoppers and classified and specialty publications. Its stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol LEE. More information about Lee Enterprises is available at www.lee.net.
CONTACT: Lee Enterprises, Davenport
Dan Hayes, 563/383-2163
dan.hayes@lee.net
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