Hal Ritter joined the "Money" section of USA Today as one of two deputy managing editors the summer before the newspaper's launch in September 1982.
He became managing editor of "Money" in 1985, and initiated coverage of hard business stories, which helped drive the nationally distributed paper to respectability and then major-league status. Those editorial efforts also finally drew attention from a previously elusive audience--many of the nation's top CEOs and boardroom types.
Indeed, Mr. Ritter trained a new generation of business readers to accept shorter stories that are well-written and graphically appealing.
Few took USA Today seriously at the start. Critics skewered the short story lengths and flashy graphics. But USA Today proved to be a trend-setter: Other papers noted the positive reader response and wound up copying many of its elements.
"Hal has something that every editor needs and many editors lack--the ability to put himself in the place of the reader," Betsy Bauer, a former Money section staffer, told TJFR in 1990. "Hal would drum into every reporter's head, 'What does this mean to the individual?' "
A 1974 graduate of the William Allen White School of Journalism at the University of Kansas, Mr. Ritter started as a reporter at Gannett's evening newspaper in Rochester, N.Y. He became an editor in 1978. In September 1980, he left Rochester to attend the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, where he received his MBA in 1982.