Mark Frisby, 64, of Woodbury, Gloucester County, retired publisher of the Daily News and associate publisher of The Inquirer, former executive vice president of operations for The Inquirer and Daily News, and onetime president and publisher of the Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, died Wednesday, Sept. 17, of takayasu arteritis, an inflammatory disease, at his home.
An expert in corporate operations and employee relations, Mr. Frisby joined The Inquirer and Daily News in November 2006 as executive vice president of production, labor, and purchasing. He was recruited from the Courier-Post by then-publisher Brian Tierney, and he went on to serve as publisher of the Daily News from 2007 to 2016 and associate publisher for operations of The Inquirer and Daily News from 2014 to his retirement in 2016.
Mr. Frisby was one of the highest-ranking Black executives in the company’s history, and he told the Daily News in 2006 that “local ownership over here was the big attraction for me.” Michael Days, then the Daily News editor, said in 2007: “This cat is really the real deal.”
He was in the office when the Daily News won a Pulitzer Prize in 2010 and celebrated when The Inquirer won Pulitzers in 2012 and 2014. He supervised a sprawling printing plant in Conshohocken, then one of the largest in the country, and handled executive management training and labor contract negotiations with eight unions and several vendors.
Tierney said Mr. Frisby was especially invaluable during industry shake-ups and ownership changes during his 10-year tenure. “He knew how to run a big company inside and out,” Tierney said. “He was understated, and when he said something you really listened. You could tell he was smart.”
He spent more time than most executives with the pressman, packers, and drivers at the printing plant, colleagues said, and he wrote in a 2022 op-ed in The Inquirer that he joined the papers to “change the culture and ensure it was inclusive.”
» READ MORE: Mr. Frisby reflects on his time at The Inquirer and Daily News
William K. Marimow, former editor of The Inquirer, said Mr. Frisby was especially adept at cutting company costs while preserving service and product quality. Two of his innovations, Marmiow said, saved money on the printing process and added revenue to the death notice pages.
He promoted subscriber discounts and reliable home delivery, and moved the company’s advertising staff into the newsroom to improve communication. He even tipped off Marimow on which reporters at the Courier-Post should be recruited by The Inquirer.
“Mark was one of the few business side executives who truly appreciated excellent journalism,” Marimow said. “He was involved from the paper’s conception to delivery.”
Mr. Frisby was hired by the Courier-Post and Gannett Co. in 1987 as a district sales manager and rose to zone manager, home delivery manager, distribution center manager, assistant production director, and production director. He was promoted by Gannett in 1997 to vice president of production for the Asbury Park Press and Home News Tribune. He returned to the Courier-Post in 2001 to be president and publisher.
“Mark Frisby is without question one of the best executives I have ever worked with,” Robert T. Collins, then-president of the Gannett New Jersey newspaper group, told the Courier-Post in 2001. “This is his eighth promotion in 14 years.”
In 2005 and 2006, he oversaw the debuts of free weekly newspapers designed to attract Spanish speakers and young subscribers in South Jersey. “It’s going to be a lot edgier than the newspaper,” Mr. Frisby told the Courier-Post when one of the papers hit the streets in 2006. “There will be things in there we frankly wouldn’t allow in the newspaper.”
He earned national recognition for his leadership by Gannett officials seven times and was named Courier-Post employee of the month at least twice. In February 1993, Courier-Post colleagues said in their announcement for employee of the month: “An expert in matching people to company goals, he has a can-do attitude, strong analytical skills, and a great sense of humor.”
As a labor contract negotiator at both The Inquirer and Courier-Post, Mr. Frisby was praised and vilified during sometimes contentious talks with union leaders. After he retired, he met with several former union officials for monthly lunches at a diner near the Courier-Post building, and they kicked around old times.
John Laigaie, retired president of Teamsters Local 628, said Mr. Frisby liked to remind everyone that he had been a union member when he started at the Courier-Post. “You talk about a guy who never forgot where he came from,” Laigaie said. “Mark knew what was right for the business, but in no way would he do it to harm the people.”
Tierney said: “People felt like he was one of them.” Marimow called him a “man of the people” and said he was “formidable and forceful.”
His wife, Carol, said: “He had a gift for managing people.”
In his LinkedIn profile, Mr. Frisby said: “Left the newspaper business June of 2016 to spend my remaining time with my family. Enjoyed a wonderful career with wonderful people who will always be part of who I am.”
Mark Joseph Frisby was born Feb. 7, 1961, in Paulsboro. One of 11 children, he delivered the Courier-Post as a boy, played trumpet in the band, and graduated from Paulsboro High School in 1979.
After a brief marriage and divorce, he met Carol Helton at the Courier-Post, and they married in 1995, and lived in Mount Laurel, Jackson, West Deptford, and Woodbury. He treated her son, Jeffrey, and daughter, Jenna, as his own, and everybody said his family always came first.
“He was such a great guy,” Tierney said. “He connected with people.”
Away from work, Mr. Frisby liked to read, fish, and bowl. In 2006, he won the Freedom Award for inclusive news coverage from the South Jersey chapter of the NAACP.
He was curious and interested in all kinds of things, his wife said. “He was even, pleasant, and always present,” she said. “His family was his main focus.”
In addition to his wife and her children, Mr. Frisby is survived by four brothers, fours sisters, and other relatives. Two brothers died earlier.
Visitation with the family is to be from 2 to 4 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 27, at Kingdom Hall, 3060 Glassboro-Cross Keys Rd., Glassboro, N.J. 08028. A service is to follow.