ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 7, 1995 TAG: 9512070046
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
William K. Warren Jr., managing editor of The Roanoke Times for the past 13 years, will leave that job Friday to become an in-house consultant for InfiNet, a sister company that provides on-line computer services and Internet access in cities across the country.
In his new job, Warren, 54, will work with the management of InfiNet in Norfolk to develop a strategy that will guide the business through the next few years. As part of his work, he will visit universities, meet with experts and talk with other newspapers that offer on-line services, preparing a report and recommendations for presentation to Infinet next summer.
"I've been doing this job for 13 years and thought it was time to do something different," Warren said of his career change. His job switch, though, was something of a natural.
Warren has already worked closely with InfiNet since its founding two years ago by Landmark Communications Inc. of Norfolk, parent company of The Roanoke Times. Publisher Walter Rugaber picked Warren to lead the effort to get InfiNet up and running in Roanoke.
This past June, Landmark sold a half interest in InfiNet to Knight-Ridder Inc. of New York. The partnership announced plans to enter as many as 100 markets within the next two years, including the majority of 26 cities where Knight-Ridder publishes daily newspapers.
The Roanoke Times and Landmark's other two major daily newspapers, The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk and the Greensboro (N.C.) News & Record, already have a presence on the Internet through InfiNet. Some stories and features in The Roanoke Times are already available free on the Internet, but Warren said the plan is to have the entire newspaper on-line for paid subscribers in the next few years.
Despite the growing competition among on-line services and particularly the anticipated entrance of the major telephone companies into the on-line marketplace, Warren said he believes InfiNet will persevere. That's because newspapers have valuable local content to offer that the others don't, he said.
There are no immediate plans to replace Warren as managing editor, a trend among Landmark newspapers, said Wendy Zomparelli, editor of The Roanoke Times. His duties will be distributed among other senior news department managers.
A native of Milan, Ga., Warren began his newspaper career in 1964 as a city-hall reporter for The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle after his graduation from the University of Georgia. A year later he joined The Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times. He spent 1966-70 in the U.S. Air Force as a public affairs officer for Air Force rescue and served another 16 years in the Air Force Reserve.
Warren was city editor of the Chattanooga paper when he was hired in 1980 as assistant managing editor of the Roanoke Times & World-News. He was named managing editor in 1982.
A longtime member of the Associated Press Managing Editors' Association and a 30-year member of the Society of Professional Journalists, Warren lives with his wife, Nancy, in Southwest Roanoke County. They have two grown children: Wendy, a reporter with The State in Columbia, S.C., and William III, who serves in the Air Force.
Forrest Landon, who retired in October as executive editor of The Roanoke Times, described Warren as an editor with very solid news judgment, who always insisted on fairness, accuracy and thoroughness as well as aggressiveness in going after stories that would serve the newspaper's readers.
"I relied on [Warren] without any hesitancy at all in all the 13 years I was executive editor to oversee the daily report while I worked on long-term things," Landon said. "The guy's just remarkably unflappable, no matter what the pressure."
The thing Warren is proudest of during his tenure as managing editor "is the assembly of a very talented staff of writers and editors and photographers and artists," he said. ``If I had to put something on my tombstone, that would be as good as anything - `He knew talent when he saw it.'''
Warren begins his new job Monday. "I'm eager to get on with it," he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Warren. color.by CNB