Rufus M. Friday

Biography

Rufus M. Friday started his newspaper career at the News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1984. In 1992, he began an 11-year span with the Gannett Company in a senior executive role directing circulation audience divisions for the company in Tennessee, Illinois and Alabama.

He joined the Sacramento, California based McClatchy Company in 2003 and then joined the Lexington Herald-Leader in June 2011 as the seventh president and publisher in its history.

In 2018, Friday launched Rufus Friday Consulting LLC, as the CEO media consultant and strategist in digital and print marketing.

He joined the Kentucky Community and Technical College System in September of 2019 as the special assistant to the president of the Kentucky Community and Technical College system, the largest provider of postsecondary online and workforce education in Kentucky.

In 2021, he was named executive director of the Hope Center in Lexington, Kentucky, whose mission is to care for homeless and at-risk persons by providing life-sustaining and life-rebuilding services. He currently serves in the community on the board of directors for the Kentucky Historical Society Foundation, the advisory council on the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky and the board of the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville.