Digital Extra: The Journal's 175th Anniversary

07.21.2004

2000s. Sutton leads Journal in new century

When Howard Sutton was a teenager in the 1960s, he wanted to make some money. So he got a paper route and pedaled around the Greenwood section of Warwick, delivering The Evening Bulletin.

Now, Sutton, in his 50s, is the publisher of The Providence Journal, having truly climbed from the bottom rung of the corporate ladder to the top.

Sutton was born March 1, 1950, in Irvington, N.J., and moved to Greenwood when he was 8. After graduating from Warwick Veterans Memorial High School in 1968, he majored in history at Notre Dame University, where he was business manager of the school magazine.

Sutton took classes so he could become certified as a teacher. He wanted to "at least come out with some practical skills in addition to a history degree." He taught history to 11th graders as a student teacher in South Bend, Ind.

After graduating from Notre Dame, Sutton was looking to make some money again, so he pored through the want ads in The Journal. He found an opening for a circulation manager -- at The Warwick Beacon.

Sutton quit The Beacon after six months to take a job as a circulation statistician at The Journal. It was 1973, and The Journal offered better career prospects and more money. His job was to tabulate the number of copies the newspaper sold.

Although he thought he might one day move up in the circulation department, being publisher was not his goal when he started at the company. "I was very excited and happy to be working for a company with the reputation of The Journal," he said.

Sutton progressed in his department, becoming circulation director in 1980. In 1987, before the death of publisher Michael P. Metcalf, he became vice president for administration. Metcalf's successor, Stephen Hamblett, chose Sutton as assistant publisher in 1998, preparing him to take over when Hamblett retired March 31, 1999.

During Sutton's tenure as publisher, The Journal has been named New England Newspaper of the Year three times and has been a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize three years.

Sutton said The Journal will continue to "be a newspaper of unquestioned integrity dedicated to the welfare of Rhode Islanders."

He said the paper will uphold the pledge of its first publisher, Honest John Miller, to be "a faithful reporter of the passing news."