Obituary: Al Neuharth, founder of the newspaper USA Today

Born: 22 March, 1924, in Eureka, South Dakota. Died: 19 April, 2013, in Cocoa Beach, Florida, aged 89

AL NEUHARTH, the founder of USA Today, has died at the age of 89. He changed the look of American newspapers, filling his publication with breezy, easy-to-comprehend articles and attention-grabbing graphics. Critics dubbed USA Today “McPaper” when it debuted in 1982, and accused Neuharth of dumbing down American journalism. It became the nation’s most-circulated newspaper in the late 1990s.

His death in was announced by USA Today and by the Newseum, which he also founded. Jack Marsh, president of the Al Neuharth Media Centre, confirmed that he died at his home on Friday afternoon. Mr Marsh said Neuharth fell earlier in the week and never quite recovered.

Sections of USA Today were denoted by different colours. The entire back page of the news section had a coloured weather map of the US.

The news section contained a state-by-state round-up of headlines, while its eye-catching logo of white lettering on a blue background made it recognisable from a distance.

“Our target was college-age people who were non-readers. We thought they were getting enough serious stuff in classes,” Neuharth said in 1995. “We hooked them primarily because it was a colourful newspaper that played up the things they were interested in – sports, entertainment and TV.”

USA Today was unlike any newspaper before it when it debuted in 1982. Its style was widely derided but later widely imitated. Many news veterans gave it few chances for survival. Advertisers were at first reluctant to place their money in a newspaper that might compete with local dailies.

But circulation grew. In 1999, USA Today edged past the Wall Street Journal in circulation with 1.75 million daily copies, to take the title of the nation’s biggest newspaper.

The launch of USA Today was Neuharth’s most visible undertaking during more than 15 years as chairman and chief executive of Gannett, which owns the Herald newspapers in Scotland. During his time at the helm, Gannett became the nation’s largest newspaper company and its annual revenues increased from $200 million (£131m) to more than $3 billion. Neuharth became chief executive of the company in 1973 and chairman in 1979. He retired in 1989.

As Gannett chief, Neuharth loved making the deal. Even more so, the driven media mogul loved toying with and trumping his competitors in deal-making.

During the mid-1980s, Gannett attempted to merge with CBS in what would have been the biggest media company at the time. The deal fell apart, something that Neuharth considered one of his biggest failures. Neuharth was proud of his record in bringing more minorities and women into Gannett newsrooms and the board of directors. When he became chief executive, the board was all white and male. By the time he retired, the board had four women, two blacks and one Asian.

“He was a great leader,” said former AP president and chief executive Tom Curley, who worked closely with Neuharth for many years. “He certainly was one of the pioneers on moving women and people of colour into management positions. He was a very strong manager who commanded respect.

“His hardscrabble life, poverty in South Dakota and fighting in the Second World War prepared him for any battles in a competitive arena, and he loved to compete and he loved to win.”

Before joining Gannett, Neuharth rose up through the ranks of Knight Newspapers. He went from reporter to assistant managing editor at the Miami Herald in the 1950s and then became assistant executive editor at the Detroit Free Press.

Allen H Neuharth was born on 22 March, 1924, in Eureka, South Dakota. His father died when he was two. He grew up poor but ambitious. At the age of 11, he took his first job as a newspaper carrier and later as a teenager he worked in the composing room of the weekly Alpena Journal. His ambition was already noticeable.

“I wanted to get rich and famous no matter where it was,” Neuharth said in a 1999 interview. “I got lucky. Luck is very much a part of it. You have to be at the right place at the right time and pick the right place at the right time.”

After earning a bronze star in the Second World War and graduating with a journalism degree from the University of South Dakota, Neuharth worked for AP for two years. He then launched a South Dakota sports weekly tabloid, SoDak Sports, in 1952. It was a spectacular failure, losing $50,000, but it was perhaps the best education Neuharth ever received. “Everyone should fail in a big way at least once before they’re 40,” he said in his autobiography. “The bigger you fail, the bigger you’re likely to succeed later.”

Neuharth married three times. His first marriage to high school sweetheart Loretta Neuharth lasted 26 years. They had a son, Dan, and daughter, January. He married Lori Wilson, aFlorida state senator, in 1973; they divorced in 1982. A decade later, he married Rachel Fornes, a chiropractor. They adopted six children.