Kenneth A. Paulson, editor and senior vice president of news at USA Today and a First Amendment advocate, will become president and CEO of the Newseum and the Freedom Forum in early 2009.
Ken Paulson
Paulson, 55, succeeds Peter Prichard, who will work on special projects for one year before retiring.
Paulson was named editor of USA Today in April 2004. He had been executive director of the First Amendment Center and senior vice president of the Freedom Forum from January 1997 to April 2004.
His previous experience includes managing newsrooms in Westchester County, N.Y.; Green Bay, Wis.; Bridgewater, N.J.; and at Florida Today in Brevard County, Fla. He also was on the team of journalists who founded USA Today in 1982.
“We are very pleased that Ken is returning to play a major role in shaping the future of our organizations,” Charles L. Overby, chairman and CEO of the Freedom Forum and CEO of the Newseum said. “He is recognized nationally as an important leader in First Amendment and news issues and his proven leadership qualities will help us continue to develop and expand the reach of our world-class museum.”
Paulson has served on the board of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. He chairs the organization’s First Amendment committee. He recently was honored along with colleague John Seigenthaler with the American Press Institute’s Lifetime Service Award. In 2007, Paulson was named Fellow of the Society of Professional Journalists.
