Meet SNPA's new president: David Dunn-Rankin

By his own admission, David Dunn-Rankin wakes up some mornings not quite believing his good fortune.

As president of Sun Coast Media Group and publisher of the daily Charlotte Sun in Port Charlotte, Fla., he runs the day-to-day affairs of his family's newspaper company, which includes seven weekly newspapers in addition to the 30,000-circulation daily Sun. It's a job that puts him squarely in his father's footsteps as head of an independently owned media company, though he walked his own uniquely independent path to get there.

Perhaps most importantly, it's a job that allows him to continue one of the callings he feels deepest about – helping small businesses succeed.

It's a calling that will serve him well as he becomes SNPA's new president.

Dunn-Rankin is a 1980 graduate of the University of the South and earned an MBA from Emory University in Atlanta in 1984. In between college and graduate school, he worked as a circulation manager for Sun Coast Media, but felt a strong pull to own a business for himself.

"During the summer between years at Emory, I worked at a local furniture dealer helping with all kinds of areas, including sales and marketing," Dunn-Rankin says. "I decided that's what I wanted to do – help small businesses be successful. I looked around for firms that did that and the only firms I found were the venture capital firms and the big eight accounting firms, which each had small-business specialties."

After completing his master's degree, Dunn-Rankin spent six years at Peat Marwick working with high-tech companies before spending the next seven building his own CPA and consulting practice focused on helping small technology companies grow. During that time he also served on the boards of tech companies such as Folio Z, Payment Technologies and Optio Software.

It was from that work that he and a partner started The UniLink Group, one of the first Internet-based electronic document exchange companies. He sold the company in 2000 with plans to retire.

"Apparently I was not a good retiree," he says now. "Dad had had some heart issues. My sister, Debbie, called and said before I started my next tech company, which was my plan, if I was ever coming back to the family business, now was the time."

Faced with a decision on staying in high tech or returning to the newspaper industry, Dunn-Rankin's wife helped by reminding him of a personal calling. "The main reason I came back to the newspaper business instead of starting
another tech company was my wife, Janie, said to me, 'You believe you were put on earth to help people; that's the newspaper business.'"

Dunn-Rankin's father, Derek, who still works at the paper every day, is a longtime industry leader. Derek worked his way up in the business starting as a reporter at the Sanford Florida Herald followed by a job after college at the Miami News in the circulation department. He later served as general manager of The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Va., before buying the Venice Gondolier on the southwest Florida Gulf Coast.

From that start, Sun Coast Media Group quickly grew. A component of that growth was the importance it placed on working with local businesses.

"I believe our company's primary job is to help local merchants be successful," Dunn-Rankin says. "These businesses have stories to tell. Their ads are news. If we help them tell their story, by whatever means, we will have a business for a long time. No other medium does this well. We are hands-down the best.

"If we help local businesses be successful, then we have permission and funding to do the local news well. Each of these, news story content and advertising news content, helps make each of our communities a great place to live."

His enthusiasm for the newspaper business is not limited to his own community or state. Dunn-Rankin has been tapped to speak at other press association and industry events for years, and he and his father have both served terms as president of the Florida Press Association. "I like to speak and visit because almost every good idea I've ever had I've borrowed from someone else," he said. "I come back, and my folks think I've really got some great ideas, but really someone else in our industry already made them work."

SNPA has been particularly favored for participation by the Dunn-Rankin family. "I've sat next to Walter Hussman and Donna Barrett at SNPA dinners – two of the smartest people in our industry. But that's just a start of the people who I've gotten to know, respect, and borrow their good ideas," Dunn-Rankin said.

Those people include his father, who in his career has been a member of SNPA's board of directors, a trustee of the SNPA Foundation and on several of the organization's committees. Derek Dunn-Rankin is also a recipient of SNPA's Frank W. Mayborn Leadership Award.

As for his goals for the coming year, Dunn-Rankin says simply, "To do half as good a job as those who preceded me. I am in awe that I would even be considered in the same league."