Gannett’s newspaper division chief Sue Clark-Johnson is leaving the company in May after 40 years. She will leave its McLean, Virginia headquarters to head back to Arizona where she once worked for the company. We talked on the phone today about the state of the newspaper business and what the future holds for the publisher of USA Today as it transforms from a newspaper publisher and broadcaster into a company ever more reliant on the Internet for its survival.

Q: Why are you leaving Gannett?

A: I’m going to be 61. I’ve been with the company for 40 years, almost 41 years. My term as [Newspaper Association of America] chairperson is up in April. I guess I would characterize it by saying it has been a really good run for the last 40 years. When I came here , I told [Chief Executive] Craig Dubow that I would come for a couple of years, but my home, my heart, my family is all in the West, and I was not going to be here forever. But I wanted to come and be part of the transformation that it sounded like Gannett was going through. We are not completed, but we are well on our way.

Q: Where is Gannett in this transformation?

A: I think we’re on a trajectory with innovation and content and news, and that’s going to continue.

Q: How is Gannett weathering the advertising downturn that is hurting newspapers, not to mention the circulation declines and wider economic troubles that are buffeting publishers?

A: I have been through six or seven economic downturns, and some semblance of change and innovation has come out of every single one of them, at least that I have been involved in. Out of adversity does come creativity and innovation. Gannett had started well down the path, understanding and anticipating the rapid change in our media environment. Then along came the economic forces that have affected not just this industry but every industry. As I said, when we were in Media Week in December, newspapers have always been an harbinger of economic change, and that has been true of this change. You have two forces at work here: systemic change and cyclical change. And they just happened to have converged at this time. We will get through the economic cycle as we always have, and we will come out as we always have, stronger, smarter and better.

(Photo: Courtesy, Gannett)