Newspaper website veteran Rusty Coats is leaving his post as VP of interactive for the newspaper division of The E. W. Scripps, E&P reports. In a memo (after the jump) sent to Scripps staffers, Coats, who was instrumental in establishing the Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Newspaper Consortium, also said that he’s leaving the newspaper business altogether, although his note also pointed to more personal reasons as well. His departure from Scripps is effective as of Monday. In December, Coats’ wife, Janet, resigned as executive editor at the Tampa Tribune and VP of news for parent company Media General.

Although he didn’t specifically point to the dire state of the newspaper industry, Coats, who spent 15 of his 20-year newspaper career on the online side, clearly wants to do something different. As he wrote in his memo, “There is a lot of innovation happening in the interactive space—some in newspapers, some outside. I want to see what’s outside without viewing it through a familiar lens.”

He also expressed personal reasons for making this decision. Coats, who was based in Scripps’ Knoxville, Tenn., office, told colleagues he stepping down because he put “work ahead of my wife and family for much too long.” A colleague said his wife resigned her job to join him in Knoxville.

Coats began working with Yahoo on forming the Newspaper Consortium when he was in his previous job as as managing director of product and audience development for Media General (NYSE: MEG). He continued to be heavily involved in the Yahoo group in his role at Scripps, which was another founding member.
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Memos from Coats and Mark Contreras, E.W. Scripps (NYSE: SSP) Co.‘s SVP follow below:

To:    Content & Marketing staff
From:  Rusty Coats
Re:    Announcement
March 4, 2010

All,

I wanted to tell you personally that I am resigning as Vice President of Content and Marketing for E.W. Scripps Newspapers. My last day is Monday, March 8.

This decision is both professional and personal.

On the professional side, after more than 20 years with newspapers – 15 of them on the interactive side – I would like to explore the broader interactive world. There is a lot of innovation happening in the interactive space – some in newspapers, some outside. I want to see what’s outside without viewing it through a familiar lens.

On the personal side, I’ve put my work ahead of my wife and family for much too long, and found I had a little too much in common with George Clooney’s character in “Up in the Air” – counting my miles and not my blessings. It’s time to see less of the world alone from an aisle seat, rental car and hotel room.

I’ve had the good fortune at Scripps to work with phenomenal people who truly have changed our industry. Our execution in interactive sales set the pace for the Newspaper Consortium in 2009. Our Asphalt design for web sites brought speed, innovation and industry accolades.  In content, our reorganized newsrooms – with a focus on the four pillars – will become a model for the industry, while our focus on growing the multimedia skills of our journalists will make us more relevant to our communities.

While it’s never a good time to step away, I’ve worked with Mark on a transition plan to continue the evolution of our news, web and marketing teams. I’m confident that E.W. Scripps, with the structure and strategy of Scripps 3.0, will make great strides in reinventing what it means to be a media company in the 21st Century.

Thank you all.

- Rusty

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From:  Contreras, Mark
Sent:  Thursday, March 04, 2010 4:59 PM
Subject:      Rusty Coats

Folks,

I thought you might want to share this with others within your organization.

As you know, Rusty has made big contributions to our organization and I wanted to thank him for his distinguished service.

As you can see from the note below, Rusty has come to this decision for both personal and professional reasons and I want you to know that I’m supportive of both of those desires and wish him well in his future endeavors.

Since he joined Scripps, he has led our interactive efforts and most recently led our content efforts particularly during the Scripps 3.0 process.

Many facets of our operations have become better because of his leadership and contributions.

We’ll begin a search for his replacement very soon.

Thanks,

Mark

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