Scripps Shareholders Add Two Directors To Board

Shareholders of The E.W. Scripps Co. on Monday elected two new members to the company’s board of directors during the annual shareholder meeting.

Burton Jablin, 62, and Leigh Radford, 57, will join the board, effective immediately. Jablin was elected by the Class A shareholders, and Radford was elected by the common voting shareholders. Wonya Lucas, president and CEO of Crown Media Family Networks, did not stand for re-election to the Scripps board.

Jablin has a long history of leadership roles with Scripps, including as a programming executive who helped launch HGTV in the early 1990s. Scripps spun off its cable networks into a new public company, Scripps Networks Interactive (SNI), in 2008. Jablin served as president of SNI and then as chief operating officer until it was acquired by Discovery Communications in 2018. He began his career in local broadcast journalism and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University.

Radford is a retired senior vice president of Procter & Gamble and was founder of P&G Ventures, an early-stage start-up studio within the company. Over her 30-plus-year career at P&G, she built multiple billion-dollar businesses across a range of countries and categories. She also serves on the board of the $7 billion nonprofit Goodwill Industries International. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Florida and a master’s in business administration from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.

“We are thrilled that Scripps shareholders have elected two such esteemed professionals to the company’s board of directors,” said Adam Symson, Scripps president and CEO. “Burton and Leigh bring us a great depth of experience and insight into consumer brand marketing and the media industry. Both have led accomplished professional lives with expertise that will help guide Scripps through its ongoing evolution.”

Lucas joined the board in 2019, when she was president and CEO of Public Broadcasting Atlanta.