Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Here’s the story. I had the news, unconfirmed, several weeks ago.
Citizen-Times President and Publisher Randy Hammer this afternoon named Managing Editor Phil Fernandez as the newspaper’s new executive editor. Hammer made the announcement in this e-mail to staff:
Please join me in congratulating Phil Fernandez as the new executive editor of the Asheville Citizen-Times.
Phil has helped steer the newspaper to its best readership gains ever. For the past several months he has worked to improve the timeliness and news content of the front page of the newspaper and the home page of our Web site.
The improvements have paid off. The latest Scarborough research shows daily readership of the print newspaper is up 10 percent this year and readership of the Sunday newspaper up 8 percent.
The gains we’ve seen online are even more impressive. The number of people who visit our Web site each week is up 19 percent. We’ve grown from 33 million page views in the first seven months of last year to 51 million page views and nearly 3 million unique visitors in the first seven months of this year. Phil’s leadership has been a driving force in these gains.
Phil joined the newspaper as managing editor five years ago after working at newspapers in Atlanta, Orlando, Fort Myers, Florida, and Lafayette, Indiana. He brings a wealth of newspaper experience to his new role as executive editor.
But it’s his experience in Asheville that makes him the ideal selection. After five years as managing editor of this newspaper, Phil knows and understands the staff and community. He is the best person to build upon the momentum we’re experiencing with our readership and Web traffic.
