Retired Herald publisher and civic leader dies after short cancer battle

Gregg McConnell, retired publisher of the Tri-City Herald and a former state legislative candidate, died Tuesday.

The 64-year-old died after a short battle with cancer.

He’d been living part of the year in a motorhome in Arizona with his wife, Diane. However, he continued to work as editor of the Herald’s quarterly magazine Wine Press Northwest in the Tri-Cities.

“Of course we are saddened,” said Jerry Hug, general manager of the Tri-City Herald and Wine Press Northwest. “It’s a loss for the wine magazine, and he’s got many industry friends who are associated with Wine Press.”

Hug said McConnell was diagnosed a few weeks ago with a very aggressive form of cancer and had been optimistic about his treatment.

McConnell held several management and executive roles at newspapers in Montana, Washington and California during his 42-year career.

During his six years at the Herald and post-retirement, he was active on boards with the Tri-City Development Council, or TRIDEC, the Washington State University Tri-Cities Advisory Council, Visit Tri-Cities and the Regional Affairs Committee of the Tri-City Regional Chamber of Commerce.

He also was focused on improving mental health organizations and other area nonprofits, and was passionate about golf and ice hockey, cheering on the San Jose Sharks and the Tri-City Americans.

Lori Mattson, president and CEO of the Tri-City Regional Chamber, said she thought the world of McConnell and was shocked and sad Wednesday to hear the news of his death.

“I had the pleasure of working with Gregg very closely on our MyTri 2030 regional project several years ago and just really enjoyed getting to know him,” Mattson told the Herald. “I was really inspired by the passion he had for the Tri-Cities, what a big thinker he was.”

“And I was struck by ... his position was really a lofty position but he was a really approachable person, and I liked that about him,” she added. “He made himself available and was truly interested in people and what was going on in the community. He was passionate about the Tri-Cities.”

Dave Retter said he first met McConnell through their jobs, but the two soon developed a friendship and occasionally went golfing together.

“Gregg had as much class as anybody that I have run into in my life. He was fair, he had an understanding of business and an understanding of partnerships, and how its going to be a win-win for everybody,” said Retter, Broker/owner of Retter and Company Sotheby’s International Realty.

“It’s a big loss. He’s just one of those people that will sorely be missed.”

Montana native

McConnell was born and raised in Western Montana, where he began his career in 1975 at his hometown weekly in Polson. He was a reporter and photographer, and months later moved across the state to hold the same positions at the twice-weekly Glendive Ranger-Review.

It was early in his career that McConnell decided he would one day become the chief executive at a newspaper. His then-publisher had refused to run a column, and told the young McConnell that if he wanted to be in the position to decide what runs in the paper, he needed to be in his job.

McConnell said he saw that as a challenge, and took his first management job in 1977 as the editor and general manager of a free-distribution weekly in Ronan, Mont. He joined Scripps League Newspapers in 1979 as an advertising director in Hamilton, Mont.

McConnell was in his late 20s when Scripps promoted him to publisher of a small daily in Taft, Calif., then later appointed him to the same job at the larger Petaluma paper.

He moved to Washington in 1992 to work with Sound Publishing’s newspaper network, and spent five years as the general manager for nondaily operations with Skagit Publishing in Mount Vernon. From 2002-05, McConnell served on the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association board of directors.

He joined MediaNews Group in 2005 and returned to Northern California to lead the Lake County Record-Bee and its related operations. In 2008 he was promoted to group publisher for The Reporter in Vacaville and the Daily Democrat in Woodland, and a year later moved north to Chico to head up three properties.

McConnell was publisher of three MediaNews Group papers in Northern California — the daily Enterprise-Record in Chico and the Oroville Mercury-Register, along with the thrice-weekly Paradise Post — when he was hired by The McClatchy Co. in October 2011.

“When I was approached about the opportunity, it wasn’t a difficult choice,” McConnell told a Herald reporter at the time.

He served as president and publisher of the Tri-City Herald in Kennewick until his retirement in 2017.

“I didn’t work with Gregg long but he was a hard working, sincere man who had his job as publisher at a time no one could envy,” said Jack Briggs, another retired Herald publisher and active member of the editorial board. “He left this world much too early.”

McConnell ran an unsuccessful campaign as a Republican candidate for state Rep. Larry Haler’s seat in 2018.

This story was originally published January 13, 2021 at 1:53 PM.