Scripps Nominates Three New Board Members

The E.W. Scripps Co. has nominated three new directors for election to its board: the company’s new chief operating officer, a Scripps family member and an expert in emerging media platforms.

Adam Symson was promoted from chief digital officer to chief operating officer of Scripps in November 2016. He is on a path to replace Rich Boehne, who plans to retire from his role as president-CEO later this year. Boehne will remain as chairman of the board.

Symson, 42, has spent the balance of his career in radio, television and digital media. He joined Scripps in 2002 with the company’s television station in Phoenix, KNXV. At Scripps, he led the television division’s news strategy and operations, oversaw content and marketing for Scripps’ interactive media division, and launched and ran Scripps’ consolidated digital operations beginning in 2011.

The board also has recommended that R. Michael Scagliotti, 45, join the board, replacing the retiring Mary McCabe Peirce. Scagliotti is a great-great grandson of the founder and son of former board chair Nackey Scagliotti.

A private investor and artist, Scagliotti received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in creative writing from Emerson College in Boston and a Master of Fine Art from Savannah College of Art and Design. He is secretary of the Scripps Family Council and a member of the board of trustees of the Scripps Howard Foundation.

The company announced in January that Peirce, 68, a great-granddaughter of the company’s founder, would step down from the board when her terms expires in May. She has served as a director since 2008.

The third board nominee is Peter B. Thompson, 48, chief operating officer of TiVo and a veteran emerging media executive. Before TiVo, Thompson served as VP of strategic partnerships for the home audio company Sonos and before that as SVP of the TV and media division for telecommunications technology firm Ericsson Corp. He joined Ericsson through its acquisition of Mediaroom from Microsoft, where he had run that business.

At Microsoft, Thompson also had served as general manager for both Microsoft Surface and Xbox Live. He received a Master of Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a Bachelor of International Economics from the University of California at Los Angeles.

At the May 2 Scripps shareholder annual meeting, Symson, Scagliotti and Thompson will stand for election by Scripps family members as holders of the common voting shares. With the addition of two board members, the Scripps family would elect eight of the company’s 11 directors.