About David Stoeffler
David Stoeffler is a news industry consultant with nearly 30 years experience as a reporter, editor and top management executive in the news business. As the owner of Touchstone News Consulting, he is a frequent speaker at industry events and works with companies on a variety of journalistic and business issues, including operational reviews to explore solutions for managing through difficult times in the news industry.
He was the first vice president for news of Lee Enterprises, joining the executive team in December 2001 at the corporate office in Davenport, Iowa. He launched a series of initiatives to strengthen journalism in the company, including regular critiques of the papers, plus a web site, Editorial Matters, and other training initiatives aimed at exchanging and fostering the development of new ideas for improving newspapers and related web sites. Other corporate responsibilities included overseeing corporate research and serving as a member of the acquisition team, including playing a leading role in the due diligence work that led to the purchase of Pulitzer Inc., owners of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Suburban Journals of Greater St. Louis and 13 other daily newspapers.
In June 2005, Stoeffler gained additional duties as publisher and editor of the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson, the second-largest paper in Lee following the Pulitzer acquisition. He took a leave of absence in December 2005 for personal reasons, returning in March 2006 as interim publisher of the Glens Falls (N.Y.) Post-Star. He later became general manager of the Suburban Journals, serving as the top executive in the company that had more than 400 employees and 33 weekly papers at the time.
Stoeffler was born and raised in southwestern Wisconsin and graduated in 1981 with an English degree from Viterbo University, a private college in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He began his Lee career in 1979 as a part-time reporter at the La Crosse Tribune. Upon graduation, Stoeffler worked as a reporter and later as a city editor at the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison, Wis., which was Lee's largest paper prior to the acquisition of Pulitzer.
After 14 years in Madison, Stoeffler returned to La Crosse in 1995 as editor of the La Crosse Tribune. In May 1997, he became editor of the Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star, at the time Lee's second-largest daily, where he served until taking his post in Davenport.
He has traveled abroad on journalistic missions, most recently in May 2009 to Egypt, where he spoke to journalists and newspaper executives about techniques for tracking and growing readership in print and online. In June 2001, he was one of a dozen American journalists chosen for a fellowship for a two-week visit to Brazil. He also was invited to Chile in August 2004 to give a series of speeches on improving local news coverage in regional papers.
He is a three-time winner of a Lee President's Award, which is the company's top honor: once for his role as a member of the La Crosse Tribune marketing team; once for his role as editor of a reporting project at the Lincoln Journal Star; and, in 2007, for leading the development of 34 web sites for the Suburban Journals. He also is a winner of various other state, regional and national journalism awards, including twice winning the Inland Daily Press Association community service award for projects he led at the Wisconsin State Journal.
More about David Stoeffler
- David Stoeffler professional resume (2 pages)
- David Stoeffler curriculum vitae (5 pages)
- American Editor profile (Aug. 2001) -- http://www.asne.org/index.cfm?ID=1731
- American Journalism Review article, "Reader Friendly" (July/August 2000) -- http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=227