Former N&O editor named to lead all News operations for parent company McClatchy
Robyn Tomlin, former president and executive editor of Raleigh’s The News & Observer, is the new chief news officer for McClatchy, the company announced Wednesday.
Tomlin will oversee the division responsible for all news, opinion and multimedia content created across McClatchy’s network of 30 local news sites and affiliated brands, according to a news release from the company. McClatchy is The News & Observer’s parent company.
Tomlin, who was previously vice president of local news for McClatchy, will be part of McClatchy’s five-person executive leadership team.
“It’s an incredible honor to lead and serve alongside the hundreds of extraordinary journalists across McClatchy as we work together to become the premier digital portals for high-impact news and information in all of the communities we serve,” Tomlin said in a news release.
Tomlin, who lives in Cary, took over as interim head of news in February after Kristin Roberts stepped down. Following Roberts, Tomlin is the second woman to lead the McClatchy news division in the company’s 166-year history.
“Robyn has a wealth of experience and an unwavering commitment to the importance of journalism in the communities we serve,” said McClatchy CEO Tony Hunter. “She’s a mission-driven leader and business executive who is keenly focused on our local audience objectives. Robyn is a strong addition to our executive team.”
Tomlin, 52, grew up in Chapel Hill, graduating from Chapel Hill High School and later, UNC-Chapel Hill, where she earned a degree in journalism in 1996. She came to The News & Observer and Durham Herald-Sun in February 2018 from The Dallas Morning News, where she was managing editor.
During her time as executive editor at The N&O, Tomlin simultaneously served as Southeast regional editor for McClatchy, overseeing newsrooms in Charlotte and at five South Carolina newsrooms, including The State in Columbia.
When Tomlin was chosen by McClatchy to run The N&O, she said: “I grew up reading The News & Observer. It was very much the newspaper that sowed the seeds of my own journalistic ambition. The work that I saw in those pages inspired me and made me want to be a journalist.”
The News & Observer’s current executive editor, Bill Church, praised Tomlin’s professional and personal qualities.
“Robyn is an exceptional journalist, leader and human being,” Church said. “She brings out the best in all of us because of her high standards and natural empathy. I can’t imagine anyone better qualified to lead McClatchy’s journalists. Robyn is world class.”
A focus on local news
Tomlin said this week that McClatchy newsrooms remain committed to serving readers with “independent, fact-based local news and opinion journalism.”
“Our journalists are all intensely focused on serving readers in their local communities,” Tomlin told The News & Observer. “That is — and always will be — core to our mission and purpose. How we do that is evolving in form and function.”
Tomlin emphasized the importance of breaking news and accountability journalism, but also more personalized, service-oriented content that helps people navigate life in their communities. To reach local readers, Tomlin said, it’s important that McClatchy use multiple platforms, including guides, newsletters, videos, databases, podcasts and community events.
“We want our sites to be the premier portals for local news and information in our communities,” Tomlin said.
A career that has spanned decades
Before working in Dallas, Tomlin worked as a reporter and then metro editor at The Citizen-Times in Asheville. She also held leadership positions at the Pew Research Center and at the Star-News in Wilmington, which is part of The New York Times Regional Media Group. Tomlin then became the founding editor of Digital First Media’s Project Thunderdome, a digital news center based in New York that provided content to news outlets across the nation.
Tomlin is also a four-time Pulitzer Prize jurist, and sits on the boards of the News Leaders Association, the National Press Foundation, the UNC Hussman School of Media and Journalism Board of Advisors and the NC Open Government Coalition. She is also a coach in the Poynter Institute’s Media Transformation Challenge program.
Part of Tomlin’s mission, she said, is to make sure that McClatchy newsrooms remain relevant and vital to readers.
“Many of our news organizations have been serving their communities for more than 150 years, and we plan to be here for at least that many more,” she said. “That can only happen as long as we’re listening to our readers, doing journalism that makes a difference and evolving in ways that help us to remain valued by and valuable to those we serve.”
Tomlin is married to Kevin Carter and has two adult sons, Andrew Hackley and Avery Carter.
