photo of Scripps building in Cincinnati
Careers Investors

Conant to retire as publisher, editor of Boulder (Colo.) Daily Camera

Aug. 28, 2003
 

CINCINNATI – Colleen C. Conant, publisher and editor of the Daily Camera in Boulder, Colo., has elected to retire after a distinguished 33-year career marked by journalism honors and remarkable community service.Conant, 55, will relinquish the reins at the Daily Camera on Aug. 31. Conant’s successor will be named at a later date. The Daily Camera is owned and operated by The E. W. Scripps Company.During her six years in Boulder, Conant received a number of honors for her leadership in the community and at the Daily Camera, which won dozens of awards for journalistic excellence.“My focus as publisher in Boulder has been to reconnect the newspaper with the community,” Conant said.Conant was named business person of the year by the Boulder Chamber in 1999; Dreammaker of the Year by the I Have a Dream Foundation in 2002; and was inducted into the YWCA Hall of Fame, also in 2002. She serves on the board of directors of the Colorado Press Association.In 1999, the Daily Camera partnered with the Community Foundation Serving Boulder County to create a Millennium Trust by asking newspaper readers and other citizens to donate the equivalent of one hour of pay to a permanent endowment for future community needs. More than 6,000 people donated almost $2 million.In 2000, after serving on many philanthropic boards in Boulder including the Community Foundation and the advisory boards to the University of Colorado’s journalism and music schools, she won the Scripps Howard Foundation’s highest honor for community service, the William R. Burleigh Award. The Scripps Howard Foundation is the philanthropic arm of The E. W. Scripps Company.“Colleen Conant is one of the most thoughtful and effective editors that I’ve had the pleasure of working with,” said Alan M. Horton, senior vice president/newspapers for Scripps. “She is 100 percent dedicated to serving the readers and providing them with the information they need to be good citizens. As a Scripps editor, she has always been determined to connect with the current and next generations of newspaper readers.”Twice during her more than three decades with Scripps newspapers, Conant was invited to be a judge for the prestigious Pulitzer Prizes. She has contributed her time as a member of the faculty of some of the best known journalism conferences and workshops, served on the board of the Associated Press Managing Editors and was active in the American Society of Newspaper Editors.Since 1992, she has been on the board of the Scripps Howard Foundation, which has contributed millions of dollars to fund journalism education, recognize journalistic excellence and help do-good enterprises in cities where Scripps has newspapers, television stations or other businesses.Conant, after earning a music degree from Oklahoma City University in Oklahoma City, Okla., talked her way into a reporting job at her first Scripps newspaper, The Stuart (Fla.) News. She quickly rose to city editor, and then managing editor. She was promoted to managing editor at another Scripps newspaper, The Commercial Appeal in Memphis and then, in late 1991, was named by Scripps as editor of the Naples (Fla.) Daily News. She was named editor of the Daily Camera in 1997 and a year later was named publisher.Conant and her husband, Terry, have two sons, Andrew, 28, and David, 22. She also cares for her mother, Louise Christner, who resides with Conant and her husband in Boulder.Celebrating its 125th anniversary, The E.W. Scripps Company is a diverse media concern with interests in newspaper publishing, broadcast television, national television networks, interactive media and television-retailing. Scripps operates 21 daily newspapers, 10 broadcast TV stations, four cable and satellite television programming services and a home shopping network. All of the company’s media businesses provide content and advertising services via the Internet.Scripps Networks brands include Home & Garden Television, Food Network, DIY — Do It Yourself Network and Fine Living. Home & Garden and Food Network each can be seen in about 80 million U.S. television households. Scripps Networks Web sites include FoodNetwork.com, hgtv.com, DIYnetwork.com and fineliving.com. Scripps Networks programming can be seen in 33 countries. The company’s home shopping subsidiary, Shop At Home Network, markets a growing range of consumer goods directly to television viewers and visitors to the Shop At Home Web site, shopathometv.com. Shop At Home reaches about 49 million full-time equivalent U.S. households.Scripps also operates Scripps Howard News Service and United Media, which is the worldwide licensing and syndication home of PEANUTS and DILBERT. ###