The voice of the Canadian newspaper industry has been prematurely silenced.
Suzanne Raitt, vice-president and chief marketing officer for Newspapers Canada, died May 12 at the age of 49, following a six-month battle with cancer. She is survived by her husband Michael and sons Matthew and Christopher.
Colleagues recalled Raitt as a tireless and passionate advocate for the newspaper industry, someone who would endure a white-knuckle drive through a mid-February snowstorm in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan – or hop on a plane bound for the likes of Thailand and Italy – to present her latest research on newspapers’ efficacy.
She delivered more than 100 presentations last year alone, all of them constructed around a central theme intended not just to engage listeners, but entertain them.
Over the years, those themes included “The Speed Date,” in which she set out to convince advertisers that newspapers are a stable partner, albeit with a little baggage, and “The Job Interview,” in which she asked – and answered – questions that advertisers would ask, such as “What differentiates you” and “Do you have a special skill?”
“She was always out on the road telling the story in a positive way, which is not something our industry does particularly well,” said Phillip Crawley, publisher and CEO of The Globe and Mail, who worked alongside Raitt when he served as chairman of the Newspapers Canada forerunner The Canadian Newspaper Association (CNA).
One of Raitt’s final presentations with Newspapers Canada was a study underscoring the role newspapers play in the automotive purchase decision. She created it after hearing from publishers how an industry mainstay – auto advertising – was migrating to social from newspapers.
“It was a good example of how she could focus in on a key area for the industry at large that mattered to members across the country, and give them a good story to take to the client,” said Crawley. “She could pull all of the strands together and weave it into a nice story.
“She always made a good impression on the customers and clearly understood the whole business of sales and marketing,” he said. “She added credibility to the industry.”
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The only child of Michael and the late Marianne Warren, Raitt arrived in Oakville, Ont. from her native England at six years old. In his eulogy, her husband Michael described her as an “academic force,” an Ontario scholar who would go on to earn three degrees from Western University: A Bachelor of Science with a specialization in math and statistics; a Bachelor of Arts – Honours Business Administration, and an MBA from the Ivey School of Business.
She accomplished the latter in just eight months, driving a total of five hours every day, from the couple’s mid-town Toronto apartment to London, Ont. and back again.
Increasingly senior positions with research firms, advertising agencies and packaged goods companies ultimately led her to newspapers in 2001. She would devote the rest of her career to the industry, creating research that would ultimately be used by sister associations around the world.
There was no job description for the position, so Raitt appointed herself as an ambassador for the industry, a fierce defender against its critics and a tireless proponent of its capabilities.
Fred Laflamme, who retired as publisher of the Kingston Whig-Standard eight years ago, worked alongside Raitt when he served on the CNA’s board of directors from 2000 until the mid-2000s.
He first encountered Raitt shortly after her appointment at what was then the daily newspaper association, when she contacted him to request a meeting to discuss the challenges and opportunities for smaller-market papers like the Whig-Standard.
A day of meetings concluded with dinner at the iconic Kingston restaurant Chez Piggy, which Raitt specifically requested. “We had a good chat not just about newspapers but media in general,” recalled Laflamme.
“We talked a lot about community newspapers and the struggles they faced because they were smaller papers and some of them really had to fight hard to get their share of readers and advertising dollars.”
Laflamme described her as “disarming,” recalling her ability to develop an almost instant rapport with small-market publishers, many of whom were skeptical of a Toronto “expert” telling them how to run their business.
“That might be exacerbated when you’re dealing with some hard-boiled publishers who in many cases think they wrote the book…but Suzanne had this terrific trait of being totally and completely disarming,” said Laflamme. “She was a genuinely kind, caring person who wanted to get to know the publisher, the staff, the marketplace and the issues confronting them.”
Newspapers Canada CEO John Hinds described Raitt as meticulous in her preparation and research. Even in the days leading up to her death, she was preparing for the organization’s annual conference in Toronto, where she would deliver a state-of-the-nation address that was always regarded as one of the event’s high points.
“Suzanne had a wonderful knack for being able to take pretty dry research and turning it into something interesting, informative and entertaining,” said Laflamme, noting that Raitt would routinely find herself following “shooters” from the Kellogg School of Management or other prestigious schools.
“Her presentations were at least as captivating and interesting as what we would get from these ‘shooters’ imported from the U.S.,” he said. “People not only would pay attention and understand it, but they’d applaud. She was an excellent presenter.”
Yet for all of her commitment and enthusiasm for the industry, family remained Raitt’s priority. Colleagues at Newspapers Canada affectionately called her the “Queen of the Red Eye,” because she would usually turn down a good night’s sleep in a nice hotel in order to return home after delivering a presentation.
“She never missed a deadline, but she also always made it home for dinner,” said Hinds, who said that Newspapers Canada planned to create a formal (as yet undetermined) recognition of Raitt’s contribution to the industry. “She totally got the work-life balance.”
Raitt was so meticulous in her planning, said Hinds, that Newspapers Canada has a “roadmap” in place for the remainder of the year. “In the long-term, she’s going to be very difficult to replace,” he said.
