David Lord
Former Pioneer Newspapers President and CEO David Lord and Seyfarth Shaw LLC partner Camille Olson will be awarded Inland Press Association’s highest honors at its 128th Annual Meeting Oct. 27-29 in Chicago.
Lord will receive the Ralph D. Casey/Minnesota Award, presented each year to a publisher, editor or senior newspaper staff member who has a distinguished record of leadership and service in the newspaper industry. The award, named in honor of the first director of the University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communications, is intended to honor someone who is an agenda-setter, bringing about change while exemplifying the finest in journalism and community service.
Olson will receive the Ray Carlsen Distinguished Service Award, named in honor of Inland’s former executive director, who retired in 2009. The award criteria state it is intended for “members who have distinguished themselves in service to the association and its affiliated foundation, who have been exemplary in service to their communities and their companies, and who deserve the recognition of their peers and colleagues.”
Lord is a past president and chairman of Inland, and an active member since coming to the newspaper industry in an unusual way in 1990. His first career was in law. Lord served as Criminal Deputy Prosecuting Attorney for King County, Washington. Prosecuting high-profile murder cases, he interacted often with journalists and said he always had good relationships with the press. “The highlight of my career,” he said with a laugh, “was being in a story in True Detective” magazine, which wrote about the case of a female “hit man.”
In the mid-1980s, as a attorney with a Seattle law firm specializing in business litigation he represented one of the Pioneer Newspapers in a legal matter. “I started doing more work for Pioneer, and in 1990 the owners asked if I would serve as president,” Lord said. Pioneer, now known as Pioneer News Group, is a family media business owned by members of the Scripps family and formed in 1974 by James G. Scripps. It publishes daily newspapers in the greater Northwest and has extensive digital operations, including digital services agencies.
“When I came to the newspaper industry, I had a very surface view of the business, and I was eager to learn about many different things,” Lord said. He was told about Inland, and at his first meeting instantly felt welcomed. “I liked that Inland provided the practical things that I really needed to know about newspapers,” he said. Within a couple of years he was serving on Inland’s Board of Directors.
A Midwest native, Lord said that Inland, while now counting members in every U.S. state, and in Canada and Bermuda, retains a Midwestern feel. “It’s what makes Inland special,” Lord said. “You get that attitude of really focusing on the practical, and an almost overwhelming friendliness.”
Lord retired as president and CEO of Pioneer News Group in 2008, serving as vice chairman for the next four years.
“David Lord is a most deserving recipient of the Ralph D. Casey/Minnesota Award,” said Inland Executive Director Tom Slaughter. “Anyone who knows David appreciates his devotion to the industry, his real-world approach to problem-solving, and his positive and infectious attitude. His service to the industry is well known-in a variety of roles.”
In addition to his service to Inland, Lord has been a member of the board of directors of The Associated Press, the PAGE buying cooperative, the American Press Institute, and the Newspaper Association of America. He was recently named to the Board of Directors of Wick Communications.
Lord will receive the Ralph D. Casey/Minnesota Award at the awards breakfast Tuesday, Oct. 29. The Annual Meeting will be held at the Renaissance Chicago Hotel.
