Eugene Jackson Jr., who has been named the new senior vice president of sales and marketing for The Washington Times, is embracing the future while reclaiming his past.
Raised in the Shenandoah Valley, Mr. Jackson said he looks forward to returning to the East Coast after a series of high-profile posts in the heartland to spearhead The Times’ drive to improve and expand its digital presence while highlighting the quality journalism being done both in print and online.
“We were very lucky to find someone of Eugene’s caliber and experience to join the Times’ family,” said Washington Times President and CEO Larry Beasley.
“He had both a strong digital background and an excellent grounding on the newspaper print side as well. He will be a huge asset for us,” Mr. Beasley added.
Mr. Jackson starts Monday.
The Times also is announcing that Tony Hill, currently senior account executive for integrated media, has been promoted to director of advertising for digital sales, taking over The Times’ digital-first ad initiatives for advocacy, national and major business accounts.
“Tony has a long background in sales management, and we have no doubt he can thrive with the new responsibilities,” Mr. Beasley said. “We’re fortunate to get both gentlemen in these posts.”
Executive Editor Christopher Dolan said Mr. Jackson and Mr. Hill will play key roles in promoting The Times’ reporting and commentary across a growing national and global footprint.
Mr. Jackson said The Times’ offer was “a great fit and a great opportunity for me as I discussed the position with Larry.”
“On the digital side, there are a lot of exciting things the paper is doing, but there are ways to expand the paper’s brand and impact that I felt I wanted to be a part of,” he said.
The changing nature of the news business — and the need to increase the tempo and rethink the business model of journalism — were prime concerns of Mr. Jackson’s previous post, where he served as president and publisher of a trio of Midwestern newspapers: The Rapid City Journal and Hot Springs Star in South Dakota, and The Chadron Record in Nebraska.
Among the innovations he brought to those publications were implementing a presence on Facebook Live and Snapchat, expanding video offerings online and creating new revenue streams from the publications’ digital platforms.
“Obviously, the news business has to embrace a changing mindset with the rise of digital journalism and advertising,” Mr. Jackson said. “But The Times is also fortunate to still have a quality print product as well, which offers ever more marketing opportunities. That’s not true of a lot of our competitors.”
Having begun his career as an account executive with The Roanoke Times, Mr. Jackson said he and his family — wife Holly and children Parker, Gavin and Chloe — are excited about a return to the East Coast.
A 2005 Virginia Tech graduate and an active coach in youth baseball, basketball and football, Mr. Jackson said he looks forward to “getting back to the banter” about the local sports teams he still supports.
“I’m also looking forward to some good, old-fashioned sweet tea,” he added. “That’s not so easy to get in South Dakota.”
Mr. Hill has been one of The Times’ top account executives since joining the paper in February 2016. Before that, he was a senior account executive for Gannett and also was vice president of advertising for the National Newspaper Publishers Association.
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