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Henry Scott (journalist)

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Henry E. (Hank) Scott is a media business executive and journalist. He launched the first online publication of The New York Times.[1][2][3]

He also launched the first foreign-language edition, the Russian language edition, of The New York Times.[4]

Scott is the author of three books - Shocking True Story, the Rise and Fall of Confidential, America's Most Scandalous Scandal Magazine',[5][6] London Comfort: From Hollywood to the White House, an American Idol's Dangerous Real World Adventure,[7] and Want to Launch a Local News Website?", a paperback guide to the publishing news online (Amazon, 2023).[8]

Early life

Scott was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, in 1951 and was raised there, where he attended Pine Forest High School. He graduated in 1972 from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, with a bachelor’s degree in political science.

Career

After graduating from college, Scott took a job in January 1973 at the Butner-Creedmoor News.[9][10]

Scott, one of three employees at the paper, learned journalism on the job.  Within months after joining the Butner-Creedmoor News, the husband and wife who ran the paper quit, and the owner named Scott, then the sole employee, as editor and publisher.  Scott later moved to the News of Orange County, a weekly newspaper in Hillsborough, North Carolina, where he worked as a reporter.  

In 1977, Scott moved to the Raleigh Times, an afternoon daily newspaper in the state capital. There he developed a passion for investigative reporting, with one of his biggest stories being the revelation that the Wake County Sheriff had given access to prostitutes and fancy meals to a man held in the county jail on federal charges of smuggling drugs from Vietnam in the body bags of dead soldiers.[11] Scott also worked as assistant city editor at the Raleigh Times.

In 1982, Scott joined the Charlotte Observer, the Carolinas' largest newspaper, covering local government and serving as business editor, where he oversaw the launch of a weekly business section.[12][13] In the same year, Scott was hired as features editor at Connecticut's Hartford Courant, the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States, where he oversaw coverage of arts, culture, lifestyle, travel, and music.

In 1985, he was named assistant to the publisher and in 1986 named director of marketing, supervising a staff that provided research, marketing, public affairs, and public relations services.[14]

Scott moved back to the newsroom in 1987 when he was promoted to metro editor, where he supervised a staff of 130 reporters and editors who covered local and state government and topics such as health and labor. In that role, Scott oversaw the launch of 10 zoned daily editions of the Courant.  

In 1989, Scott moved to New York City to join The New York Times, where he served as managing director for Research and Marketing Planning and later as Vice President/New Media and New Product Development in the company's Information Services Division.[1]

Scott left The Times in 1995 to form Gansevoort Media, a media consulting company. With Gansevoort and its successor, interMediator Group, Scott worked as a consultant with BusinessWeek, the Wall Street Journal, the Dallas Morning News, the Tampa Bay Times, The New York Times, Dagsbrun Media of Iceland, Prodigy, Nest magazine, Poz magazine, El Mio Vino, the Knight Foundation and New Century Media, an internet consortium of America's five largest newspaper publishers.  His consulting practice has focused on crafting and implementing strategies to identify and more efficiently target audiences and increase revenue and turning around financially troubled media properties.

In January 1996, Scott was engaged by one of his clients, the owner of Out Publishing Co. to take over fulltime management of Out magazine, a financially struggling gay and lesbian lifestyle magazine. As president and editorial director of Out, Scott also launched an auxiliary publication titled HIV Plus.[15]

Scott made major and somewhat controversial changes to Out's staffing and content to concentrate the magazine's focus on the lifestyle of gay men rather than lesbians and to concentrate its circulation on major metropolitan areas likely to attract major advertisers.  His refusal to renew the contract of Sarah Pettit, a lesbian who had been the magazine's editor, sparked controversy.[16] Scott replaced her with James Collard, a gay man who was editor of the U.K.'s Attitude gay magazine. Collard left after one year.[17]

Within three years, the changes implemented by Scott tripled Out's advertising revenue and its audited paid circulation increased by 67 percent to over 130,000. The household income of the average Out reader, as measured by MRI, (now MRI-Simmons), grew from $70,000 a year to $90,000 a year. With ads from major designers such as Calvin Klein and Yves Saint Laurent, Out became profitable for the first time since its launch in 1992.  In 2000, Scott left Out and assisted its owner in selling it to Liberation Publications. (LPI Media).[18]

Scott was hired in 2002 to advise London-based Metro International on the launch of Metro New York, a 330,000-circulation free daily newspaper published in New York City. Scott served as Metro's managing director, publisher, and strategic business advisor until 2006.[19][20][21]

In 2010, Scott was engaged by Creative Loafing to be chief marketing officer for its network of six financially troubled alternative weekly newspapers, which included the Chicago Reader and Washington City Paper, and to serve as publisher of Creative Loafing Atlanta.[2] Scott oversaw a redesign of the Atlanta newspaper and its website and changes in its advertising sales process that resulted in Creative Loafing Atlanta becoming profitable that year.[22]  

In October 2011, Scott moved to West Hollywood, California, where he launched West Hollywood Media Company (WHMC LLC) to publish a hyperlocal news website (www.wehoville.com) and a quarterly print magazine (West Hollywood Magazine).  

Reference: http://www.adweek.com/fishbowlny/wehoville-henry-scott-dan-watson-daniela-ruelas-aol-new-york-times-allan-siegal/182481

Reference: https://www.editorandpublisher.com/stories/everything-you-need-to-know-about-launching-a-local-news-website,200681

Scott sold the website in November 2020 and moved back to New York City in March 2021 to resume his media consulting practice, which he renamed Media-Maven LLC.[23]

Achievements

In 1992 Scott negotiated a deal with the Moscow News to launch The New York Times News in Review, The Times' first foreign-language edition, which was published in Russian from Moscow.[4]

In 1993, Scott took The Times online for the first time in a deal with America Online.[3] 

Scott also oversaw development of a Spanish-language newspaper insert for New York City-area newspapers. He was the member of The Times Company's senior management charged with developing an electronic media strategy for the company.

Non-profit affiliations

Scott served on the board of governors of The New School in New York City from 1995 to 1996.

In June 2007, Scott founded the North America Free Daily Newspaper Association with his consulting partner, Johan Hansson, with whom he co-hosted the first North America free daily newspaper conference.[24]

In 2011, Scott was asked to join the CEO Affinity Group, an association of executives of non-profit organizations in Los Angeles to provide his perspective as an executive of for-profit entities.

In 2018, Scott was the cofounder of the West Hollywood History Center, a non-profit organization that created a "virtual" museum that chronicles the history of that city.[25]

Writing

Scott is the author of "Shocking True Story, the Rise and Fall of Confidential, America's Most Scandalous Scandal Magazine" (Pantheon, 2010)[5]

and "London Comfort: From Hollywood to the White House, an American Idol's Dangerous Real World Adventure" (Pine Forest Press,  2012).[7]

He also is the author of "Want to Launch a Local News Website?," a paperback guide to the process of publishing news online. (Amazon, 2023).[8]

References

  1. ^ a b "Henry E. Scott". freshfiction.com. Retrieved 2023-10-12.
  2. ^ a b May 13, Scott Henry Thursday; Edt, 2010 04:13 Pm. "CL Atlanta names Henry Scott as new publisher". Creative Loafing. Retrieved 2023-10-12.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ a b Rusbridger, Alan (2018-09-06). Breaking News: The Remaking of Journalism and Why It Matters Now. Canongate Books. p. 50. ISBN 978-1-78689-095-5.
  4. ^ a b Jones, Alex S. (1992-04-28). "THE MEDIA BUSINESS; Russian-Language Edition Of The Times Begins Today". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-10-12.
  5. ^ a b Scott, Henry E. (2010-01-19). Shocking True Story: The Rise and Fall of Confidential, "America's Most Scandalous Scandal Magazine" (1st ed.). Pantheon. ISBN 978-0-375-42139-6.
  6. ^ Kurutz, Steven (2010-01-26). "Author Henry E. Scott Dishes the Dirt on 1950s Gossip Rag, Confidential". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2023-10-12.
  7. ^ a b Scott, Henry E. (2012-02-15). London Comfort: From Hollywood to the White House: An American Idol's Dangerous Real World Adventure. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN 978-1-4699-3133-3.
  8. ^ a b Scott, Henry E. (2023-04-29). Want to Launch a Local News Website?: Been There. Done That. Here’s What You Need to Know. Independently published. ISBN 979-8-3876-8152-3.
  9. ^ "Muck Rack | For journalists and public relations". muckrack.com. Retrieved 2023-10-12.
  10. ^ "The Butner-Creedmoor News". Restoration NewsMedia. 2022-06-06. Retrieved 2023-10-12.
  11. ^ Hayes, Anna R. (2008). Without Precedent: The Life of Susie Marshall Sharp. Univ of North Carolina Press. pp. Chapter 19. ISBN 978-0-8078-3214-1.
  12. ^ "Where Are They Now?". Creative Loafing Charlotte. 2002-04-03. Retrieved 2023-10-12.
  13. ^ Claiborne, Jack (1986). The Charlotte Observer: Its Time and Place, 1869-1986. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-1712-4.
  14. ^ Kamin, Blair (2001). Why Architecture Matters: Lessons from Chicago. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-42322-7.
  15. ^ "HIV guide". Baltimore Sun. 1998-10-25. Retrieved 2023-10-12.
  16. ^ Brady, Paula (2003-02-06). "Gay activist Pettit '88 dies at age 36". Yale Daily News. Retrieved 2023-10-12.
  17. ^ "Graydon Carter Aborts His Sun-and-Fun Weekend With Barry Diller". Observer. 1999-05-24. Retrieved 2023-10-12.
  18. ^ "MRI-Simmons, a joint-venture co-owned by GfK". www.gfk.com. Retrieved 2023-10-12.
  19. ^ Kelly, Keith J. (2005-05-04). "EX-POSTIE IN 'SAVVY' MOVE". Retrieved 2023-10-12.
  20. ^ "Metro International launches its New York City edition". www.campaignlive.co.uk. Retrieved 2023-10-12.
  21. ^ Steinberg, Jacques (2004-05-05). "Second Free Daily Newspaper Joins Battle for Younger Readers". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-10-12.
  22. ^ December 2, Thomas Wheatley Thursday; Est, 2010 12:16 Pm. "Henry Scott to exit as CL publisher". Creative Loafing. Retrieved 2023-10-12.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  23. ^ "There Goes the Gayborhood!". LAmag - Culture, Food, Fashion, News & Los Angeles. Retrieved 2023-10-12.
  24. ^ "| Speakers' Bios". www.altweeklies.com. Retrieved 2023-10-12.
  25. ^ "Home". West Hollywood History Center. Retrieved 2023-10-12.
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