Bob Cox, the former chair of News Media Canada’s board of directors, announced that he would be retiring from his role as publisher of the Winnipeg Free Press. A successor is expected to be in place in the new year.
For the past 14 years, Cox, 61, has run the only independently owned metropolitan daily in Canada. Cox served as the editor of the publication for two years before becoming published in 2007.
Cox has successfully helped shepherd the Free Press into the digital era during his tenure as publisher, in which revenue from digital subscriptions is as important as advertising revenue.
I am announcing today that I am retiring as Publisher of the Winnipeg Free Press.
I will remain in the position until Bob Silver and the Board of FP Newspapers find a new leader to guide the company. I look forward to doing whatever I can to ensure a successful transition to new leadership, which will occur sometime in 2022.
It has been my life’s greatest honour to lead the Winnipeg Free Press for more than 14 years. I walked into the old Free Press building on Carlton Street in 1984 as a young reporter, never imagining that I would be the publisher some day.
That start led me to many places – Regina, Ottawa, Edmonton, Toronto and, ultimately, back to Winnipeg where I began in this business, and where I will end.
I am immensely proud of what the Free Press has achieved and continues to achieve, providing excellent journalism to the city and province, succeeding as a business and gaining national and international recognition for its innovations in the publishing industry.
It is thanks to all of the staff that this happens, and I cannot thank them enough for all of their efforts.
I also want to thank Bob Silver and Ron Stern for having had confidence in me to lead the organization. They have provided stability in a rapidly changing industry, ensuring readers in Winnipeg, Brandon, Steinbach and across the province are well-served by quality journalism.
His presence in the industry is going to be greatly missed. We wish him all the best as he enters the proverbial ‘next chapter’.
