Modesto Bee publisher taking new job with Bay Area company

Randazzo returning to San Jose as controller of solar energy firm

By John Holland
jholland@modbee.com

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Margaret R. Randazzo, president and publisher of The Modesto Bee, announced Tuesday that she is leaving to join a solar energy company in San Jose.

Randazzo, who has headed The Bee since June 2006 and also has been responsible for the Merced Sun-Star, will be controller at Akeena Solar as of January.

A successor could be named as soon as next month, said Frank Whittaker, a vice president of operations at The McClatchy Co. in Sacramento. Candidates inside and outside the company will be considered, he said.

Margaret Randazzo

Randazzo, 40, came to The Bee as the newspaper industry was entering a sharp decline because of the weakening economy and increased Internet competition. Since that time, the paper has reduced its staff, shifted its printing to The Sacramento Bee, boosted its online presence at modbee.com and taken other steps to weather the downturn.

"I'll always be rooting for The Bee and the newspaper industry," Randazzo said after meeting with employees Tuesday morning. "I'm so proud of what we accomplished."

Randazzo said she was not looking to leave The Bee, but heard about the new job from an Akeena executive who had worked with her at Knight-Ridder Inc., a San Jose-based news- paper chain bought by McClatchy in 2006.

Akeena, which has about 200 employees, designs and installs panels that turn sunlight into electricity at homes and businesses.

"Their mission is clean electricity from the sun," Randazzo said. "That's good not only for the environment, but for the economy."

Randazzo, a native of Oklahoma, is a certified public accountant. She started her career with the Arthur Andersen accounting firm in Dallas in 1990.

Six years later, she joined Knight-Ridder as financial planning manager for its Fort Worth Star-Telegram newspaper. She then rose to other financial positions at that paper and in the parent company.

Randazzo was a special assistant to three senior vice presidents at Knight-Ridder when McClatchy named her as president and publisher in Modesto. She is The Bee's third publisher, after Orage Quarles III and Lynn Dickerson.

"We are very appreciative of everything Margaret has done," Whittaker said. "She came at a very difficult time, when the economy started to soften, and she has overseen some very good restructuring plans that offset some of the revenue decline. At the same time, she steadfastly remained committed to publishing a great newspaper, supplemented with an improved Web site."

Mark S. Vasché, The Bee's editor and senior vice president, echoed Whittaker's praise.

"At a time when strong leadership was needed, she provided that and much more," Vasché said. "Her commitment to quality journalism, her financial expertise and her positive, solution-focused approach helped us make difficult but necessary decisions that have positioned us to not just survive the current recession but to thrive once the economy rebounds. I will miss her as both a leader and a friend."

Randazzo and her husband, Greg, have three children -- Alexandra, 11, Isabelle, 9, and Jack, 5.

Bee staff writer John Holland can be reached at jholland@modbee.com or 578-2385.