‘Kentucky is in my blood.’ Meet the Lexington Herald-Leader’s new executive editor

As an Ohio University freshman, about five weeks before my 19th birthday, I learned I was adopted.

The revelation, unsurprisingly, rattled my world and raised innumerable questions. But two specifically churned on an endless loop: Who am I and who was my biological family?

It took about a decade after that life-changing discovery before I learned my biological history that yielded answers. One of the most important: I was born in a hospital in east-central Ohio, the youngest of nine children born to a woman who grew up near Webbville, a dot-on-the-map, unincorporated community in Lawrence County, just south of Grayson along Highway 1.

Born a proud buckeye? Indeed. But it’s undeniable Kentucky is in my blood. My roots, I learned later from my very kind and informative biological mom, run deep in the rocky soil just 110 miles east of Lexington. It’s an important reminder for me as I begin my tenure as the Herald-Leader’s new executive editor.

I started this humbling new role Sept. 25, a homecoming of sorts after spending 2 1/2 years as the executive editor and chief content officer for a media company in Sonoma County, Calif., an hour north of the Golden Gate Bridge and in the heart of wine country. It is an incredibly talented newsroom and the largest between San Francisco and Portland, and I was privileged to spend time with those dedicated journalists until just after Labor Day.

But this part of the country is home.

And getting an opportunity to lead the Herald-Leader’s award-winning staff of passionate and accomplished journalists, who are committed to serving readers across Kentucky, is a tremendous honor.

Our mission is a simple one: We will continue to make a difference in this commonwealth by pursuing and publishing fair and fearless journalism. I promise to never lose sight of that objective.

It’s especially rewarding to succeed a journalistic legend in our state, my friend, Peter Baniak, who led the Herald-Leader staff for 14 years before being promoted to a vice president role at our parent company, McClatchy. Peter will remain in Lexington while overseeing our small- and medium-sized newsrooms, including our Herald-Leader operation.

So, what can you expect from the guy charged with filling the big shoes Peter leaves behind?

First off, be assured that I love this industry and all the changes, challenges and responsibilities that come with it. I’ll be relentless in ensuring we deliver the kind of consequential content readers in Lexington, Central Kentucky and the broader commonwealth not only expect, but demand. I know we must be your trusted, unbiased source of compelling journalism that informs, entertains and equips communities and readers to drive change.

We must protect our most vulnerable and ensure those in power are held accountable for their actions, votes and spending decisions.

When breaking news erupts — such as the catastrophic December 2021 tornadoes in Western Kentucky, the incomprehensible July 2022 flood in Eastern Kentucky, or the horrific April 2023 mass shooting at the Old National Bank in Louisville — the Herald-Leader will be there.

Please, turn to our digital site, kentucky.com, for non-stop, accurate and urgent details on news as it happens.

We’ll also be transparent in our reporting. That means we’ll explain who we are, how we cover the news and the measures we’ve taken to report the most complex, controversial of stories.

I’ll make certain we share our unflinching commitment to publishing news without an agenda, without a bias.

We will celebrate community wins, vigilantly analyze (and question when necessary) the actions by public officials and agencies, provide leadership on Kentucky’s most complex issues, share evocative stories that touch your heart and ferociously protect the ideals expressed in the First Amendment.

We’ll kick over stones to find the real stories from the Statehouse to your City Hall, while also directing the spotlight to your neighborhoods, schools, shopping districts, restaurants, athletic fields and places of worship.

We won’t be bullied, intimidated or pushed around when it comes to pursuing the truth for you, our readers.

Put simply: We will be an essential part of your life, providing news and content that you simply cannot ignore.

It’s a blueprint to win readers I learned in my first newsroom in my hometown of Coshocton, Ohio. I started there as a 15-year-old high school reporter who, before I knew how to drive, witnessed firsthand the power and relevance of community journalism. I worked at The Tribune for nearly three years before heading to college, and those early lessons have shaped me these past four decades.

I come to Lexington after stints in newsrooms in the aforementioned Santa Rosa, California, as well as in central Ohio, Cincinnati, Palm Springs, Des Moines, New Jersey’s Bergen County and Louisville.

Yes, five years ago I was editor of Kentucky’s other big newspaper for 30 months. I had the honor of leading its staff on such important stories as Matt Bevin’s flurry of pardons and commutations in 2019 and exhaustive coverage of the tragic Breonna Taylor killing in 2020.

That newsroom’s work garnered national attention and recognition. I remain very proud of them.

With a nod to Pitino-esque travels along I-64, I enjoyed my time in Louisville. But I’m so excited to live, work and explore Lexington. It’s a new chapter, but also a place my family and I have visited for more than 25 years.

That means I’m eager to return to the Kentucky Horse Park, the region’s bourbon distilleries, the fall meet at Keeneland and the antique shops in Berea.

As a new Lexington resident, I’m itching to catch a movie at downtown’s Kentucky Theatre, to roam the grounds of Henry Clay’s Ashland estate and Raven Run Nature Sanctuary, to check out the autumn bounty at downtown’s Lexington Farmers Market, to sample Ouita Michel’s restaurants and to soak up the history along the African American Heritage Walking Tour.

And on a personal, proud Dad note — I also can’t wait to catch my first Wildcats game in Rupp Arena with my son, Ben, who’s a University of Kentucky junior.

Newspapers across America are struggling in unprecedented ways, besieged by economic and readership challenges that will be topics of future columns. This news organization, with roots tracing back to 1870, including the merger 40 years ago of the Lexington Herald and the Lexington Leader, has proudly served Central Kentucky as a dependable source of news you just can’t miss.

My job is to ensure its vitality. Its relevance. And its unflinching commitment to serve its readers.

I’m eager to embrace those challenges with my new colleagues and with tireless passion and an unyielding love for journalism here in a state that has been home to my family for generations.

What can we do to get better? What advice do you have for me? I hope you’ll share your thoughts in an email or call.

Thanks for welcoming me to your community, Lexington.

And thanks for reading the Herald-Leader and kentucky.com.

Rick Green can be reached at rgreen@herald-leader.com or (859) 474-0049. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @EditorRAG