E.W. Scripps COO Adam Symson will officially become the company’s CEO and president when Rich Boehne, the current chief executive, retires Aug. 8, Scripps announced Monday.
Boehne, who will continue as Scripps chairman, announced his retirement in November. At that time, Symson, then head of Scripps’ digital operations, was promoted to COO.
“Adam is a terrific leader, motivated by an entrepreneurial drive and a mission-driven commitment to enterprise journalism,” Boehne said. “He steps up to the new role determined to continue — and accelerate — the success of this adventurous 140-year-old company.”
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Throughout his tenure, Boehne has focused on strengthening the group’s broadcast and digital operations, as well as overseeing its exit from the newspaper business.
He became the company’s president and CEO in 2008, when the journalism-focused E.W. Scripps Company was created after the group’s cable networks were spun off into Scripps Networks Interactive.
He also championed the 2015 deal with Journal Communications that merged Journal’s broadcasting operations with Scripps and spun off both companies’ newspapers into a separate group, Journal Media Group, which has since been sold to Gannett.
Boehne, 61, began his career as a reporter and editor at the Cincinnati Post, which was a Scripps paper at the time.
