Simmons named PD managing editor

The Plain Dealer named Debra Adams Simmons as its managing editor today. Adams Simmons, who most recently was editor and vice president of the Akron Beacon Journal, replaces Tom O'Hara, who left the paper last week for a teaching job at Kent State University.

Plain Dealer Editor Susan Goldberg announced the decision to the staff this afternoon. "Debra is a wonderful journalist, blessed with an analytical mind, a knack for understanding readers' interests and an enormous capacity for problem solving," Goldberg said.

Adams Simmons, 42, worked as deputy managing editor and metro editor at The Virginian Pilot in Norfolk, Va., before working at the Beacon Journal. She has also worked at the Detroit Free Press, The Hartford Courant and the Syracuse-Herald Journal.

Posted on Cleveland.com by PD Metro staff September 20, 2007 14:02PM

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Akron News Now in an article by Ed Esposito just before 4 p.m. called it:

The PD’s Beacon Look

Here’s that story:

Another move in the northeast Ohio newspaper community puts a former manager of the Akron Beacon Journal in charge at the Plain Dealer.

Debra Adams Simmons is a former editor and vice-president of the Akron Beacon Journal; now she's the new managing editor for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, filling the vacancy left by Tom O'Hara who left to pursue other interests, including a teaching position at Kent State University. Simmons left the Beacon Journal at the end of 2006.

Simmons most recently helped lead the building and celebration for the Akron Urban League's new headquarters building. Workers at the Plain Dealer were informed of the new hire this afternoon. According to the PD, the 42-year old Simmons resume includes stops in Richmond, Detroit, Syracuse and Hartford newspapers in addition to the Beacon Journal. PD Editor Susan Goldberg, also relatively new to her position in Cleveland but a former Knight-Ridder newspaper alum as is Simmons, referred to her as having "an enormous capacity for problem solving."

This is just the latest game of ink-stained music chairs; longtime ABJ sports and religion columnist Terry Pluto sent shock waves across the newsroom on East Exchange and South Main when he announced he was leaving the Akron newspaper and rejoining the PD staff. The Plain Dealer is running an aggressive ad campaign promoting Pluto's return to the Cleveland paper.

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Finally, see Susan Goldberg's welcome memo as published by Jim Romensko at Poynter Online