The Village Squire, 1981-10, Page 20Profile
Ken Larone:
With his tweedy, casual clothes, his
pipe, a soft, low voice, and a grin that
lights up his warm brown eyes, he looks
like a college professor, or perhaps a
gentleman farmer.
If you stretch it a bit you might guess
he's a with -it, small-town store owner.
Which he is, but just part of the time.
It's unlikely, however, that you would
slot Kenneth Larone, 46, R.R. 3
Seaforth, into the role of managi• "r
of TV Guide, the 1 million,
circulation little magazine tl
Canadians and Americans what
tube each week.
He just doesn't come off as
heavy.
Ken Larone looks more
(sophisticated country) than c
that's just where he is once again,
a new house set on more than one
acres of native Huron County so
About three years ago he and
Nancy took over the store (gifts,
stationery and books) that was si
Larone's parents on Seaforth
Street years ago. Nancy runs it di
while Ken travels back and
Toronto or wherever TV Guide
takes him.
The journalistic journey that
him from Seaforth into the co
world of glossy magazines has 1
and tough, but fascinating,
Larone. "You need a sense of d
says. "You must be prepared to
to ft�ht for your principles...
ism s a good profession."
Larone insists that coming froi
town was ideal preparation for his career
because he had learned about com-
petition. "Small towns are very, very
competitive, far more than most people
perceive," he says. He remembers
playing on Seaforth High Scchool's football
team in the 1950's and winning a western
Ontario championship by beating much
bigger schools. Off the football field
teachers like Nan Taylor, Arch Dobson,
Rena Fennell and Jean McIntyre instilled
"a pride of excellence" into the young
Larone and his classmates. "I was
encouraged, pointed well," he says.
In the summers, Larone worked for
Seaforth's weekly paper, The Huron
Expositor.
After Grade thirteen he enrolled in
journalism school at Ryerson Poly -
PG. 18 VILLAGE SQUIRE/OCTOBER 1981
by Susan White
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tv a ren we nau to Ere nut my puruausw,
but the real thing," Larone remembers.
Ken Larone moved on to the Vancouver
Sun where he worked with a host of
topnotch Canadian journalists that in-
cluded Alan Fotheringham and Sandy
Ross.
The Sun bought a community paper in
Garden Grove, California. "Some friends
went down to run it." Printed offset and
using photo composition that was to
revolutionize newspaper technology, that
paper "really intrigued me."
He transformed his interest into action
and for the next thirteen years he
published the Mirror in Don Mills. In short
order he made it the most successful
suburban paper in the country. It was also
Canada's first photoset, offset printed
newspaper nlarRCt, uuugut wry pc' trot
of Larone's interest in the Mirror. "We
felt pressure" Larone says, and the Star
money provided an influx of capital.
Then the Star asked him to streamline
its string of papers under the chain name
Metrospan. (Earlier this year Metrospan
bought out the Inland chain to give the
Star control of all Toronto area community
papers) The Metrospan job meant putting
nine papers "of varying quality" into one
organization and Larone says, "I liked the
change. It was a step up, working with the
best in the business."
The steps continued up for Larone and
soon he was the Toronto Star's assistant
managing editor, overseeing an editorial
staff of more than three hundred. He
helped the paper design its Sunday