Deitra
KenolY
PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER, SAN JOAQUIN MEDIA GROUP
STOCKTON-NATIVE DEITRA KENOLY’S longstanding tenure
at The Record, Stockton’s daily newspaper servicing San Joa-
quin and Calaveras counties, started in 1981 when she joined
the paper as a production coordinator. Save for a five-year stint
with neighboring publication the Tracy Press, Kenoly’s entire
career has been spent working in nearly every department of
The Record, including a 12-year role as advertising director, be-
fore becoming president and publisher of it and San Joaquin
Media Group, a subsidiary of GateHouse Media. Kenoly over-
sees the day-to-day operations of the company, managing the
revenue, distribution, editorial and accounting departments.
“I’ve really grown up with the company,” says Kenoly, “and
in my 38 years here, I’ve seen a lot of changes.”
To remain relevant, in 2007 the company took a strong look
at the business, which was struggling like many legacy papers
to shift to a digital landscape. While advertising director, Ke-
noly helped implement a corporate initiative to rebrand the
organization as a multimedia company that offered more than
just print, before taking over as president and publisher of the
subsidiary in October 2017.
“It became a matter of evolving and adjusting to those
changes or closing the business. We opted to change and evolve
into something bigger and greater,” she says. In addition to San
Joaquin Media Group’s four publications, which reach a com-
bined 80,000 households, the company now offers expanded
digital services like web design, e-commerce and social media
marketing through its digital agency ThriveHive, along with
event marketing and commercial printing services.
One year into her role, Kenoly made the difficult decision
to shutter the organization’s in-house printing operations in
favor of outsourcing. The aging equipment, high cost of paper
and demand for digital news all contributed to the closure.
“From a business standpoint, it was a solid business decision.
From a personal standpoint, it was painful because it meant
the loss of jobs,” she says. “But the idea behind the change was
to evolve, save money and make it seamless to our readers and
our business partners from a quality standpoint, and I think
we’ve done a good job of that.”
Last July, Kenoly was named president of the Greater Stock-
ton Chamber of Commerce, where her goal is to build on the
chamber’s current programs that connect education and
business through an apprenticeship program and business
education alliance, as well as increase awareness to resourc-
es and incentives that help companies reduce the cost of
doing business.
“The City of Stockton has done an amazing job navigating
through some tough economic issues, and now we’re expe-
riencing good growth and expansion in a number of areas,”
Kenoly says. “My vision for our businesses and residents is to
continue moving our city forward.” n
– Laurie Lauletta-Boshart
Words of Wisdom: Be confident and believe in yourself and don’t take no for an answer.
March 2019 | comstocksmag.com
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