Michael A. Anastasi, vice president of The Tennessean and USA Today South Region editor, was promoted this week to lead a new nationwide Gannett effort to transform the growth trajectory for hundreds of local newspapers.

His new role, vice president of local, will report directly to Gannett Co. Inc. Chief Content Officer Kristin Roberts.

Gannett, owner of USA Today and its nationwide network of local papers, hired Roberts in March to redevelop its local news strategy.

“Michael is an experienced news leader with a demonstrated history of transformative success through innovation while achieving business results and fostering a culture of excellence,” Roberts said.

Mark Russell, executive editor of The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, will assume duties as Gannett's Interim South Region editor, overseeing operations at 20 news outlets in Tennessee, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Anastasi will remain The Tennessean's editor pending a national search for his successor. Tennessean News Director Ben Goad will continue to run day-to-day operations in Nashville.

Anastasi said he is excited to take on the new challenge.

“I am so proud of this team and these journalists and what they have accomplished,” he said. “My family and I are remaining in Tennessee, and I remain committed to serving this community as I transition to an executive leadership role. I can’t wait to help accelerate our transformation as I work with the thousands of local Gannett journalists across the country.”

Roberts’ strategy, “Project Breakthrough,” focuses on key growth areas to increase nationwide audience, including opinion columns, newsletters, service journalism, breaking news and audience engagement.

“We are going to save local journalism, and we’re going to do it by working together with absolutely clear eyes about the challenge and tremendous speed toward the solution,” Roberts said. “When we place the reader at the very center of our business plan, we begin to prioritize what the reader wants and needs.”

The fresh perspective is designed to attract larger paying audiences to local journalism by being more responsive to readers.

Anastasi has more than 30 years of experience leading print and digital news organizations.

He studied international relations at the University of California, Davis; has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from California State University, Long Beach; and has a master’s degree in Leadership and Public Service from Lipscomb University. He sits on a number of industry and community boards, including the Economic Club of Nashville, the Middle Tennessee Council of Boy Scouts of America and Leadership Tennessee.

He worked as a reporter in California and served as managing editor of the Salt Lake Tribune for eight years.In 2012, he was named vice president and executive editor at Los Angeles News Group, a consortium of local Southern California newspapers.

Shortly before joining The Tennessean in 2015, Anastasi oversaw a Pulitzer Prize-winning news investigation into school-district corruption in South Los Angeles.

Over the last five years, Anastasi has presided over a 150% increase in digital subscriptions at The Tennessean and an exponential increase in the social media reach. Throughout his tenure, The Tennessean has consistently ranked No. 1 in the Nashville area for market penetration and reach among digital news sources.

Anastasi’s accolades also include the 2021 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Journalism grand-prize award for “The Confederate Reckoning” project, which examined the ongoing legacy of the Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow and Civil Rights eras in the South.

Frank Suraci, watchdog editor of the Southern California News Group – formerly LANG – was on the Pulitzer team and credited Anastasi’s leadership.

“At the first meeting he held with a group of editors, Mike laid out his vision for our newsrooms and promised that one of us would win a Pulitzer Prize in the not-too-distant future,” Suraci said. “We all looked at each other and chuckled. Within three years, the team I was leading at the Daily Breeze won a Pulitzer. And it wouldn’t have been possible without Mike as the driving force behind our work.”

Sandy Mazza can be reached via email at smazza@tennessean.com, by calling 615-726-5962, or on Twitter @SandyMazza.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Longtime Tennessean editor tapped to reinvigorate hundreds of newspapers