Why would David Callaway, who has spent most of his career in online journalism, want to plunge back into the print world and run USA Today?

âI donât look at it as a newspaper,â he tells The Daily Beast. âObviously the print product is their flagship. But the whole idea is to take the websites they have and make the journalism more relevant.â
The message here is that ink-stained wretches are out, web-savvy folks are in. Callaway, who spent the last 13 years at the online business site MarketWatch, was tapped by the new president and publisher, Larry Kramerâwho, as it happens, helped build MarketWatch before moving to CBS Digital Media. Gannett is betting USA Todayâs future not on the four-section product derided as McPaper after its 1982 launch, but on its ability to make money online.
âA lot of really great newspaper editors applied for this job,â Kramer says. âI needed someone who totally lived in digital.â Plus, âwe know each other really well and I trust him implicitly.â
The two men agree on one thing, that âUSA Today has been kind of siloed at Gannett,â as Kramer puts it. Thatâs why Callaway says he wants to work with other Gannett papers, websites, and television stations to improve the product. He also is inheriting a shrinking staff hurt by layoffs and furloughs.
Unlike many of Gannettâs 81 papers, and a growing number of newspapers across the country, USA Today does not charge for web access. What does it offer, beyond solid sports coverage, that people would be willing to pay for? Its political reporting is conventional, it has a dearth of investigative reporting, and its lack of standout columnists is notable.
As a national paper that has slipped to No. 2, with 1.8 million circulation, it has no local community as its base. And what was once innovative about the paperâlocal sports scores; news from 50 statesâcan now be downloaded in spades with the swipe of a finger.
But Callaway says USA Todayâs brand is âreflecting what America stands forâ and that he wants to âtake that advocacy for the American people and bring it online.â In that sense, he says, it is very different from The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post, a paper attuned to whatâs going on in the heartland and ânot just in New York and Hollywood.â
The new duo isnât exactly entering alien territory. Callaway once wrote a financial column for the Boston Herald. Kramer ran the San Francisco Examiner and the Washington Post metro staff. So they know the industry is ailing, that the Tribune papers have just emerged from bankruptcy, that the New Orleans Times-Picayune is cutting back to three times a week, and that the only man in America buying newspapers is Warren Buffett.
Kramer instantly discovered an old media mind-set at USA Today. âNone of the top people here were very digitally oriented,â he says. âWhen youâre successful at something, you get very defensive about what you do.â
Changes are clearly coming. Callaway, who will move from San Francisco to the USA Today offices in northern Virginia, talks about succeeding âonline, on social platforms and mobile platforms.â He talks about adding âslide shows and archives and videosâ to usatoday.com. And, he says, âIâm a huge weather fanatic,â and USA Todayâs weather graphics are âsecond to none.â
After Callawayâs appointment was announced last week, he says, there was a striking variation in the emails he received.
âEveryone in New York said, âBig challenge.â Everyone who wasnât in New York said, âMy favorite paper.ââ