The Quest To Get Reno Gazette-Journal Publisher Susan Clark-Johnson To Answer One Simple Question

By D. Brian Burghart

Susan Clark-Johnson is known to most locals as the powerful publisher of the Reno Gazette-Journal, the mightiest paper in northern Nevada.

But in casino circles, Clark-Johnson is also known for her other gig: She's a highly paid member of Harrah's Entertainment's board of directors, a corporation her newspaper is supposed to cover in an objective manner.

When her dual role was revealed in 1994, it sent shockwaves throughout the national newspaper community, generating stories in the Washington Post and trade publications like Editor & Publisher.

Some believe she has a conflict of interest. UNR journalism ethics professor Jake Highton, for instance, doesn't think a newspaper can be expected to be unbiased if its leader serves on a corporate board of a major local industry.

“My feeling is that it's a clear conflict of interest,” says Highton. “Here she's serving on the board of a member of the state's largest industry, and the paper is supposed to be covering it. In that position, you have to be above suspicion. It seems to me that it violates the role of a newspaper. “We talk about Sue Clark-Johnson in ethics classes,” adds Highton (who, it should be noted, is also a columnist for the competing Sparks Tribune newspaper). “My opening remark to the class is that we don't need ethics classes for students. We need it for publishers and TV station managers.”

So, like the Washington Post and other publications, we at the News & Review set out to ask Clark-Johnson one simple question: Does she consider it a conflict of interest?

When she recently hosted a meeting of an outfit called New Directions for News (an institute, founded in 1987 to foster “innovation in newspapers to make them more “relevant and useful in the service of a democratic society”), Harrah's, the casino she works for, was the locale, and we showed up, too.

But she refused to talk.

“I'm at a social event.... I'm here at a social event that I'm hosting,” she said, and the petite, salt-and-pepper haired publisher briskly terminated the interview. The social event, which was sponsored by a press organization, was closed to the press, closed to the public and cost $1,650 to attend.

According to a Securities and Exchange Commission document, Harrah's board members are paid $2,500 per month, $1,500 per board meeting and $1,200 per committee meeting. Clark-Johnson was elected to the board for three more years in 1996.

The board met eight times in 1995. The audit committee, on which Clark-Johnson serves, met four times in 1995, according to Kathy Callahan at Harrah's Entertainment's executive offices in Memphis, Tenn. All things being equal, if Clark-Johnson attends all the meetings, she stands to be compensated $46,800 by the gambling group this year.

So, after her social gathering was over, we redoubled our efforts to reach her. We made phone calls, sent faxes, e-mail messages and letters to both her home and office requesting an interview.

We wanted to ask her about the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) code of ethics, adopted Sept. 1,1996, which states: “Journalists should be free of obligation to any interest other than the public's right to know. Journalists should: Avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived. Remain free of associations and activities that may compromise integrity or damage credibility. Refuse gifts, favors, fees, free travel and special treatment, and shun secondary employment, political involvement, public office and service in community organizations if they compromise journalistic integrity. Disclose unavoidable conflicts.” SPJ says it has no record of Clark-Johnson being a member. We also wanted to ask her about what the Columbia Journalism Review quotes the Gazette-Journal's own employee handbook as saying: “Employees will not have any outside interest, investment, or business relationship that dilutes their loyalty to the company or dedication to the principle of a free and impartial press.”

But, try as we might, Clark-Johnson didn't return any of our messages. It isn't the first time she's refused to talk with us. Back in 1994, when news of her Harrah's job first broke, an administrative assistant to Clark-Johnson read a statement from her to former RN&R staff writer Brad Summerhill.

“Our experience with your publication on past stories has shown you're unable or unwilling to provide fair and accurate reporting in coverage of issues before the Gazette-Journal,” Clark-Johnson said through the assistant. “In fact, you promote yourself as a newspaper with an 'attitude.' Therefore, I do not feel comfortable responding to your questions.” It was beginning to look hopeless. Trying to get close to Clark-Johnson was like trying to meet the Pope—next to impossible.

We started asking ourselves more questions about her: Just who is the real Sue Clark-Johnson? How powerful is she?

Research on the Internet and through public records uncovered the portrait of a woman who wields tremendous clout within Gannett Company Inc., which owns the Reno Gazette-Journal and also publishes USA Today. It is, by most estimates, the largest newspaper chain in the country. In addition to publishing our local daily, Clark-Johnson is the president of Gannett West Newspaper Group.

Most importantly, she runs one of the more profitable medium-sized newspapers in the Gannett chain, a paper that is criticized by some as being editorially shallow, but which nonetheless brings home the bacon for its parent company.

She also created a local nonprofit group, Forum For a Common Agenda, that meets regularly in the Gazette-Journal offices and boasts the names of some of the most influential businessmen in the community.

Clark-Johnson became a powerhouse through hard work and guts. She's a stellar businesswoman. The question we'd like to ask her is whether she's serving the community as a member of Harrah's board—or herself.

CITIZEN SUE
Susan Clark-Johnson was born on Feb. 21, 1947, in Mount Kisco, N.Y. Her parents are Emile Schurmacher and Elizabeth Woolf, according to her most recent marriage license application. (Susan J. Clark was married to Samuel Brooks Johnson, the publisher of the San Bernardino Sun, at the Hyatt Regency on Jan. 3, 1996; it was her third marriage. She was divorced from her second husband in 1991.)

She graduated from State University of New York at Binghamton in 1967. She started her career in newspapers as a family news reporter at the Binghamton Press Company and became women's editor of the Binghamton Evening Press in 1968.

“I was 21 and was hired as a women's reporter for the Binghamton Press and Sun Bulletin in New York, covering club news and doing features,” she said in an interview with the Boston Globe in 1989. “The editor of the women's section left abruptly, and I was asked to run the department until they found someone else.” “But Clark-Jackson was asked to head the department permanently, and she has never stopped moving up the ladder,” the article continued. She hired on at the Niagara Gazette as family news editor in 1970, became editor, then became publisher in 1977—only the fifth woman to be promoted to the top job on a Gannett paper. Al Neuharth, former CEO of the Gannett Corporation and founder of USA Today, says of her promotion, “Most of the publishers, including Sue, were not ready [to be promoted]. I thought she'd grow into it. I told her if she didn't, I'd fire her and if she did, I'd promote her. “She is an extremely bright and motivated journalist,” he said. “My relationship with her was professional—she was polite and worked well with others.”

If Gannett has one laudable quality, it has been the promotion of women and minorities to positions of prominence. As Gannett CEO, Neuharth advanced this principle perhaps more than anyone else.

“I felt that most of us in the media were continually preaching diversity, but we didn't practice it. Having a diverse newsroom and not having middle-aged white guys making all the decisions was not only the right thing to do, but it was good business,” Neuharth said. While Neuharth wouldn't comment for the record on Clark-Johnson's job at Harrah's (when be retired from Gannett in 1989, he declared he wouldn't comment publicly on matters of the day-to-day business), he did say this: “I'm not sure if we had a written conflict-of-interest policy. We had understandings of what people could and couldn't do.” Clark-Jackson was promoted to publisher of the Binghamton Press & Sun- Bulletin in December 1983. In July 1984, she became one of two vice presidents for the Gannett Corporation's northeast region. It was as publisher in Binghamton, NY, that she got a taste of controversy when her application for membership to the Binghamton Country Club was rejected, although her male predecessors had been accepted, according to a June 30, 1984, UPI story. “It's not only personally insulting, it's also a great insult to the company I represent as president and chief executive,” she said in the UPI story. She also said she wouldn't contest the rejection. “ 'I don't think I want to belong to an organization that doesn't want me,' ” she added. An organization “'that doesn't respect my position or my gender.' ” It was also during her tenure in Binghamton that the Evening Press—which had been an afternoon newspaper for 81 years and had a circulation of 57,000—ceased publication and merged with the Sun-Bulletin, a paper that was also owned by Gannett and had a circulation of 27,000, according to a July 19,1985, UPI story. The move cut production jobs, but, according to Clark-Jackson, replaced them with jobs in circulation.

She came to Reno to be publisher of the Gazette-Journal and was appointed president of Gannett West Newspaper Group in December 1985. She served as a jurist on the Pulitzer Prize in journalism committee. She bought her first home in Reno on Powderkeg Circle in the Juniper Trails subdivision of Caughlin Ranch in April 1986.

She was recognized as Gannett's Manager of the Year in 1990. The Reno Gazette-Journal has received plenty of in-house laurels under her stewardship, including Most Improved Newspaper in Gannett in 1991. It has even won the Best of Gannett, the Gannett Company's highest award honoring editorial excellence.

THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY
1994 was the year Susan Clark-Jackson hit the fan. She became senior group president, Pacific Newspaper Group, Gannett Co., Inc. in June 1994. As president, she became responsible for 18 newspapers in Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Washington and Guam (her husband, Brooks Johnson, as publisher of the San Bernardino Sun, is her employee). She was elected to the board of directors of Promus Companies, Inc., (former parent company of Harrah's, which owns casinos in Reno and across the country) in July 1994, pending her qualification by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission. She also bought a $440,000 property on Jill Street in Incline Village in July 1994.

The Reno Gazette-Journal announced her election to Promus Company's Board on July 30. At that time, directors who were not employees of PHC (Promus Hotel Corporation) or its direct or indirect subsidiaries were paid a monthly fee of $2,083 plus $1,500 for each PHC board meeting and $l,000 for each committee meeting they attended. Promus and Harrah's Entertainment Corporations split in 1995. Meanwhile, Promus and its subsidiaries paid Gannett's Pacific Newspaper Group $890,251 for newspaper advertising from Jan. 1, 1994, to Feb. 28, 1995, according to SEC documents. It was in September that Susan Clark-Jackson's ethics came under fire from media professionals across the country.

The Post reported that Clark-Johnson's role at Harrah's has had a negative effect on morale at her newspaper.

Howard Kurtz's Post story read: “ 'We cover that industry on a regular basis and that particular casino on a regular basis,' one [unnamed] staffer |al the Reno Gazette-Journal I said. 'Even if you play everything straight, there could still be a perception that there's a conflict, that you're in bed with Harrah's, that we can't be trusted.' Some newspaper publishers have worked for charitable or nonprofit institutions... But it is unusual for a news executive to accept employment with a profit-making corporation.”

Editor & Publisher published a story by M. L. Stein on Sept. 10, 1994, in which industry professionals, including some from her own newsroom, took Clark-Jackson to task.

Columbia Journalism Review gave the Reno Gazette-Journal a “dart,” one of the most damning indictments in journalism, in its November issue. A dart is issued by the magazine to media people who have engaged in questionable journalism. Gazette-Journal editor Ward Bushee fired off a letter to E&P that ran Oct. 8, 1994. Among other comments about E&P's story, Bushee states: “Her [Susan Clark- Jackson's] interest in the Promus board stems from her desire for greater understanding of the community's major industry—gaming. “Our major industry is struggling to survive and she has demonstrated she can help it....“Controversy is nothing new to Clark-Jackson. As a young publisher in upstate New York, she challenged the all-male membership of a country club (she was admitted, although she does not golf),” Bushee concluded.

But Grace Sanford, who has worked at the club for 18 years, could find no record of her membership and thus, in the search for the real Susan Clark-Johnson, the plot thickens.

EXECUTIVE DECISION
Although Clark-Johnson wouldn't talk to us, one of her bosses, Gannett board member and well-known G-J columnist Rollan Melton, would.

“She's a hell of a good executive, one of the best I've ever been around,” says Melton of Clark-Johnson. “She knows the business top to bottom. She's very well-regarded by her colleagues. She's got a healthy attitude and a good sense of humor—she establishes goals and lets people do their jobs. She's a pleasant person to be around socially and professionally.”

Melton commands more than 50,000 Gannett shares and is chairman and CEO of Speidel Newspapers Inc., a Gannett subsidiary. He is a trustee of the National Judicial College and the John Ben Snow Trust and Foundation. He has been Gannett director since 1977.

Melton did not, at first, want to talk about Clark-Johnson's Harrah's gig. “I don't want to comment on that. I don't want to get involved in that,” he said. But then he called back, willing to comment. “I've never seen one conflict—I've never seen one sign of conflict of interest. She's hands-off and lets the editors run. She's a very straight arrow on news. I've never seen her get in their [the editors'] way. I've worked with nine or 10 publishers. She's the first woman, and she's just the tops. I count her among my most valued colleagues and a very good friend.” When it was mentioned that as a Gannett boardmember, he's Clark-Johnson's boss, he said, “In theory, that's true.” But he says he is also a hands-off sort. Melton turns 65 on July 24 and, according to SEC documents, will retire from Gannett's board on May 6.

SUSAN SLEPT HERE
“I hope that my involvement with Promus gives me greater understanding of my community's major industry,” said Clark-Jackson in a statement to E&P. “Many publishers serve on bank boards, chambers of commerce and United Way. What's the difference?” The difference is that gambling is the single largest industry in the state, and newspapers should be able to cover it without conflicts of interest.

You often find members of business serving as directors on newspaper boards, but you don't often find it the other way around, said Jim Naureckas, editor of Extra!, the magazine of FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting), a national media watch group. Naureckas believes that outside businesses shouldn't be involved in the decision-making process of the news media, or vice versa.

“It's a national problem,” Naureckas said, and mentioned several conflicts that have come about because of the recent national merger mania. (NBC/General Electric and ABC/Disney are two examples). “As a director you are obligated to pursue the interests of the business of the board you are on—it's a fiduciary responsibility,” he said. “Ideally, you want independence so reporters can cover business and government without thinking about their employers' interests,” Naureckas said. “It certainly sends a signal when your publisher is on a board that your newspaper is not looking for hard-hitting news. It doesn't take long for journalists to get a pretty good idea of who the sacred cows are.” While on the subject of boards of directors, it should be mentioned that Drew Lewis, the chairman and CEO of Union Pacific who retired from UP last month, and the man who engineered the train merger that the city is fighting tooth and nail in the courts, is also on Gannett's board of directors. He was elected to the board May 7, 1996. The News & Review told U.S. Senator Harry Reid, who is spearheading the state's efforts against the railroad, about Lewis' position, and he was surprised. Reid wants fewer trains running through downtown Reno, because they hurt casino business. “No,” said Reid, “I was not aware that Drew Lewis is on the board of Gannett. That is a real conflict of interest.” It's dual loyalties like this, however, that may affect editorial contents, according to Naureckas. Indeed, a Jan. 16 Gazette-Journal editorial was published with the headline, “City errs in denouncing extra trains.”

Gazette-Journal editor Ward Bushee did not return a News & Review phone call requesting a comment.

Lewis is joined on the Gannett board by such personages as Thomas A. Reynolds Jr., another director at Union Pacific and chairman emeritus of the law firm of Winston & Strawn of Chicago;: Rosalynn Carter (Jimmy's wife);: Meredith Brokaw (Tom's wife); and Rollan Melton (Marilyn's husband).

Gannett pays its directors $42,500 annually. Each director also receives a fee of $1,250 for each board meeting attended; each committee member gets $1,000 for each committee meeting attended. Directors who are employees of the Gannett or its subsidiaries receive no director fees.

While Gannett's annual report does list Susan Clark-Johnson as one of 27 directors and executive officers, it does not list her salary. A Gannett spokesperson implied that it was nobody else's business. Go figure.

HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS
There seems to be no question about Clark-Johnson's abilities as a businessperson. Even papers like the Cincinnati Enquirer track her stock-tracings. For example, a July 29, 1996, story said, “Susan Clark Jackson (sic), an affiliated person [with Gannett Co., Inc.] exercised an option for 8,050 shares between $43.75 and $44.55 each June 11-21, and sold them between $70.50 and $71.25 each June 11-21 and now directly and indirectly holds 12,571 shares.” She also runs with the “big boys” in Reno. She co-founded the Forum for a Common Agenda, an organization that includes some of the most prominent local businesspeople, and meets regularly in the Gazette-Journal offices.

The Forum was granted nonprofit status in 1992 (according to a determination letter addressed to Susan Clark-Jackson from the Internal Revenue Service) and its office is inside the Reno Gazette-Journal building.

The RN&R could not obtain a current list of the board of directors. FCA staff consultant Kathy Bartlett said, “I don't have a current one. People are constantly coming and going these days, so it's in reorganization.” One past board of directors' list, however, lists the directors as Buz Allen of Bank of America Nevada; staff consultant Kathie Bartlett; Bob Burn of Washoe Health System; Don Carano of the Eldorado Hotel Casino; Gary Carano of the Silver Legacy; Clark-Johnson; UNR president Joe Crowley; Michael Dermody of Dermody Properties; Bill Dickerson of CareBorne, Inc.; Clark J. Guild, Jr. Of Guild, Russell, et al.; Walter Higgins of Sierra Pacific Resources; Mac King of Nevada Bell; Ron Krump of Krump Construction; Ernie Martinelli; Alan Means of Caughlin Ranch; Boume Morris of Boume Morris Inc.; Tom Outland of Macy's Reno; Jim Rogers of Harrah's; John “Bud” Russell of International Games Technology; Joey Scolari of Scolari's; Ferenc Szony of the Reno Hilton and Larry Tuntland of First Interstate Bank. Also missing are director's salaries. “I don't have that kind of information,” Bartlett says. “You might be able to get that off of their annual reports of earnings or from Securities and Exchange Commission filings, which governs publicly traded corporations.” Actually, it's the Internal Revenue Service that keeps stats on non-profit organizations, and the Forum is not a publicly traded corporation. Christina Wasson, internal communications specialist of public affairs for the IRS, suggested www.nonprofits.org for information about the Forum. The document gave P.O. Box 22000 for the Forum's mailing address, the same as the Gazette Journal's. The Forum was listed as a corporation. Its assets were listed as $15,479 and its income $49,665. Forum for a Common Agenda includes crossmembership with Nevada Non-Partisan Coalition, a group of politically active people that purports to “getting honest, qualified candidates elected to public office in Washoe County” and Northern Nevada Network, “a 'doing business as' for Frank Partlow” who is a columnist for the Reno Gazette-Journal and a business consultant. “She has really committed herself and committed the paper to doing good things for the community,” Partlow said. In the December 1995 issue of Editorially Speaking, Mark Silverman, director of Gannett's NEWS 2000 program, discussed “how newspapers can take a more active role in helping readers improve their lives by exposing problems, offering solutions and providing leadership.” Editorially Speaking is a Gannett in-house newsletter mailed to the top editor at each newspaper. To get an idea of how the Gazette-Journal provides leadership, one only has to look at its 1995 Forum “Green Book.” In it, the Forum suggests doubling “our first-class room base within the next 10 years” to enable the state to better compete for tourist dollars. “We believe that business leaders need to come together as the Forum for a Common Agenda to work with other community leaders to develop and implement solutions to those issues that will create a healthier community,” the 53-page program read. “And when all is said and done, the community must act.”

When all is said and done, however, the tried-and-true method to act for the betterment of the community is to make your presence felt on Election Day.

Newspapers and newspaper people clearly understand that, as evidenced by the Reno Gazette-Journal's “Your Vote Counts” campaign of the last election. Susan Clark-Johnson ostensibly agrees, since she sat on the four-person editorial board that made the endorsements for last November's election. (Incidentally, the Gazette-Journal's endorsements agreed with the Nevada Nonpartisan Coalition's in all but six cases, one of which was a tie.)

Ultimately, however, in our quest to seek out Clark-Johnson, we weren't able to find any record of her being registered to vote in Washoe County.

“According to this,” says Harry Day, field registrar and mail-in registration coordinator at Washoe County Registrar of Voters indicating the data base of voter records, “she is not registered to vote.”

That detail seemed so inconceivable that the RN&R resumed twice more to the Registrar of Voters to check the variety of names we found while trying to find the real Sue Clark-Johnson.

One final phone call to her office yielded no results. “Yes,” said her assistant, “she's been getting your messages.”

Where is Clark-Johnson registered to vote? It's just another unanswered question we have for the publisher of the Gazette-Journal.

NEWS BLUES
Where Do You Go For News
When Your Daily Newspaper Has Bailed Out?

By Dennis Myers

So where do you get news the Gazette-Journal won't touch or opinions it won't impart? There are other sources, not the least of which is, of course, the distinguished journal you hold in your hand. The Sparks Tribune is one good example. The Trib covers the Reno City Council as faithfully as the Gazette-Journal, and without the G-J's penalizing of dissenters or proselytizing for “consensus” and “harmony.” It is also that increasingly rare delight: an afternoon newspaper, published daily except Saturday. Subscription information is available at 358-8061.

Another source for alternative views of Reno is Electric Nevada, computer page established by former Gazette-Journal editorial cartoonist Steve Miller. It can be found at www.electricnevada.com.

A gadfly's newsletter called the Reno Citizen is published by activist Sam Dehne. It's not a news publication, but an opinion piece that regularly draws attention to things the Gazette-Journal prefers to ignore. Information is available at P.O. Box 50093 in Reno.

You can read about issues that touch on rural Nevada by plugging into the Rural Internet Wire Service. It covers rancorous issues like the 1872 mining law and range fees, without draining the rancor from them as happens in the G-J's homogenization process. People are given their say without an artificial, positive spin being put on their views. You can make contact at majordomo@greatbasin.net:.

Another source of news on rural issues is Range magazine, edited by legendary Nevada editor C.J. Hadley. You reach Range at 884-2200.

A newspaper that began as an environmental publication and has broadened beyond that is the Great Basin News. On ranching and mining issues, conservatives tend to get most of the mainstream newspaper publicity. The News gives a voice to those ranchers and miners who are environmentalists. The newspaper tends to be literary— “even the Journalism tends to be storytelling,” says editor Jon Christiansen. A recent issue explored cowboy culture and cowboy poetry that taps the underside of the cowboy experience. An article in the same issue bewailed “the gating of the west” and included a personal essay by a descendant of Brigham Young. An article on making peace between ranchers and environmentalists was picked up by the New York Times. Information can be obtained by calling 882-3990.

Federal Issues Update, now in Volume 2, Number 49, is a weekly summary of the impact actions in Washington have on Nevada. A recent issue dealt with welfare, the consumer price index, teen driving death rates, and also reported on a nonprofit charitable foundation newly formed in Incline Village and a public/private group formed to work on missing children issues in Clark County. In addition, Update contains a public meeting calendar listing the times and locations of a variety of meetings dealing with various public policy issues. For information on Update, call Sheila Leslie at 786-3060.

Local writer David Toll produces Nevada Web, which includes the “Encyclopedia Nevadica,” a list of links to other Web sites involving Nevada; “Dave's Newsstand” with links to other news sources: and “Dave's News,” Toll's own take on the news. It can all be found at www.nevadaweb.com

The Nevada Policy Research Institute is a study group that has both a Web site (On Line-Nevada) and publications examining local problems. Information can be obtained from P.O. Box 20312, Reno.

The Las Vegas Sun offers what aficionados of computers call one of the best Web sites in the state. It can be found at www.lasvegassun.com/news/. If you have trouble accessing it, we're told, try again without the “sun” on the end. The launch of a Las Vegas Review-Journal (a newspaper that has repeatedly beaten the Gazette-Journal on northern stories) Web site is impending.

Citizen Alert publishes a newsprint-format magazine of the same name as the organization. A recent 24-page issue contained 32 articles on everything from the conduct of the Washoe County Airport Authority to efforts by Nevada congressmembers to filibuster a nuclear waste measure.

The Nevada Legislature has just gone into session, and you can read bills, resolutions,. and committee minutes (and send e-mail to your legislator) by calling up www.leg.state.nv.us. In the first days of the Legislature, unfortunately, the site has not been up to date, but should improve. Incidentally, the Gazette-Journal does have a Web site. It has generated lots of comment among Web heads since it is made up entirely of advertising. “They've managed to dispense with the news altogether,” Toll jokes.