People:Faculty

Randy Hammer

Randy Hammer is president and publisher of the Asheville Citizen-Times and the Asheville Media Company.
Twice he was named editor of the year by the Gannett Company, which owns the Citizen-Times and other newspapers, including USA TODAY, television stations and online companies throughout the United States and United Kingdom.
 
Hammer began his journalism career in 1970 as a reporter and photographer for the Panama City News Herald in Panama City, Florida. He joined Gannett in 1974 as a reporter and copy editor with the Pensacola News Journal in Pensacola, Florida. He rose to become executive editor of the newspaper from 1999 to 2006.
Under this leadership, the Pensacola News Journal was a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. The Pulitzer Committee honored the newspaper for its coverage of Hurricane Ivan in 2004 and also for an investigative series in 2002 that led to the indictment and conviction of four of five Escambia County commissioners. He also won a first-place Best of Gannett award for column writing for a series he wrote about corruption on the commission. The newspaper won the top award for environmental reporting from Scripps Howard, the National Headliner award for public service, and Gold Medals for excellence in journalism from the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors and Gannett.

Prior to coming to Asheville, Hammer was a vice president at the Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky. His previous experience includes:

• Executive editor, The News-Leader, Springfield, Mo., 1995-1999.
• Executive editor, The Herald-Dispatch, Huntington, W. Va., 1991-1995,
• Editor, Chronicle-Tribune, Marion, Ind., 1990-91.
• Managing editor, The Jackson Sun, Jackson, Tenn., 1989 to 1990.
• Assistant managing editor and a variety of editing and reporting roles, Pensacola News Journal, 1974-88.
• Sports editor, Panama City Times, Panama City, Fla., 1973-74.
• Reporter and photographer, Panama City News Herald., 1970-73.

He grew up in Fairhope, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, where his father was a high school football coach and his mother was an English teacher. He graduated from the University of West Florida in Pensacola. His wife, Michelle, is a former school teacher and his stepson, Lucas, attends Evergreen Community School. His daughter, Savannah, lives and works in Austin, Texas.