Philadelphia City Paper Owner Appointed to Seat Vacated by Laura Markham.
AAN President Albie Del Favero announced today that Philadelphia City Paper owner Art Howe has been named to the AAN Board of Directors. Howe will fill the Marketing/Publicity chair vacated by Laura Markham. The COO of Alternative Media Inc. [AMI], Markham resigned her post late last year when AMI’s chain of three newsweeklies was put on the auction block.
Howe will assume his seat in time to attend the Long-Range Planning Committee and AAN Board meetings that will be held in San Francisco prior to AAN West.
Howe’s newspaper experience is extensive. As a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter, he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for a 70-article series on malfeasance within the Internal Revenue Service. In the late ’80s, Howe spent three years working on the business side of Knight Ridder’s Philadelphia paper. In 1989, he left the daily paper and bought the suburban Philadelphia-based Montgomery Newspapers. The company now owns sixteen community papers, three magazines, several specialty publications and the City Paper, which it bought in April 1996.
Howe is no stranger to the board room. For the better part of this decade, he has served on the boards of the Pennsylvania Newspaper Publishers’ Association [PNPA] and the Suburban Newspapers of America [SNA].
“With his experience with dailies and community papers, Art will add a unique perspective to the board,” says Del Favero. “We look forward to his contribution.”
In addition to his years of publishing experience, Howe also brings to the board a bullish attitude about the business.
“In my judgment,” Howe told AAN News during his bid to buy the AMI group in December, “I think alternative papers are the most exciting — and have the greatest potential — of any kind of newspaper today. I love the energy.”
Markham was elected to a two-year term at the 1998 AAN convention in Washington. Howe will hold the appointed seat until the annual meeting at this year’s convention in Memphis, at which time an election will be held for the final year of Markham’s original term.
