Rest Peacefully, Creed C. Black

 “As every editor knows, a newspaper can generally avoid controversy and criticism if it will publish every­thing that people want pub­lished, suppress any news that may be unpleasant to anyone, close its eyes when it sees some wrongdoing and remain silent when vigorous leadership that might offend someone is needed.” --Creed C. Black

The following obituary is from the News Journal.  A much more thorough and thoughtful piece can be found at http://www.kentucky.com/2011/08/16/1847393/former-herald-leader-publisher.html

Creed C. Black, a former vice president and editor of The News Journal newspapers, has died in Florida at age 86.

He was more recently publisher at the Lexington Herald-Leader in Kentucky, where he made dramatic changes from 1977 to 1988, the paper reported.

In Wilmington, Black resigned in 1964 in a dispute over coverage of the DuPont Co. The New York Times reports the resignation came “after the papers’ owner brought in a public relations executive from the DuPont Company to help manage the news department. DuPont was by far the most important company in town, and Mr. Black accused the owner of the newspapers, a securities firm controlled by the DuPont family, of wanting to make the papers, The Morning News and The Evening Journal, DuPont “house organs.” The newspapers were later sold to Gannett Co. Inc.

In the 1970s, Black was a top executive at the Philadelphia Inquirer.

In 1983, Black oversaw the Lexington Herald and The Lexington Leader consolidate into one newspaper and oversaw the construction of a new newspaper plant.

The Herald-Leader won its first Pulitzer Prize under his watch.

Daily circulation at the newspaper increased by 28 percent and Sunday circulation grew by 61 percent making the Herald-Leader the dominant regional newspaper in the area.

Black died Tuesday at Baptist Hospital in Miami.