The Village Squire, 1981-10, Page 22Profile
by Susan White
Ken Larone : a man with drive
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 managing editor
of TV Guide, the 1 million, 100,000
circulation little magazine that tells
Canadians and Americans what's on the
tube each week.
He just doesn't come off as a media
heavy.
Ken Larone looks more country
(sophisticated country) than city, and
that's just where he is once again, living in
a new house set on more than one hundred
acres of native Huron County soil.
About three years ago he and his wife
Nancy took over the store (gifts, clothes,
stationery and books) that was started by
Larone's parents on Seaforth's Main
Street years ago. Nancy runs it day-to-day
while Ken travels back and forth to
Toronto or wherever TV Guide business
takes him.
The journalistic journey that propelled
him from Seaforth into the competitive
world of glossy magazines has been long
and tough, but fascinating, for Ken
Larone. "You need a sense of drive," he
says. "You must be prepared to sacrifice.
to fight for your principles .... journal-
ism s a good profession."
Larone insists that coming from a small
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 School'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
technical Institute where he was still an
inspiration and a bit of a cult figure to
students there in the sixties. Ten years or
so before he left school without
graduating and had become publisher of
the biggest and best community paper in
the country, the Don Mills Mirror. His
abrupt departure from Ryerson "kicked
out", he grins. in third year quite close to
graduation was the result of a conflict with
principal H. H. Kerr, a respected educator
who also hails from Seaforth.
Twice Larone. as editor of the school's
paper the Ryersonian, ran stories that
caused problems for the administration.
"We felt we had to be not toy journalists.
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
Kenneth Larone with his wife Nancy
paper. Ken didn't make it home for the
three days before that first historic run,
remembers his wife. and when he finally
climbed slowly up the stairs he said,
simply, "We've finally done it."
The movement of people to the suburbs
and the technological revolution in
newspaper production came at the same
time. The Larones were pioneer settlers in
Don Mills. Nancy says the community had
to build churches, schools, and a hospital
in an area that in the fifties was simply "a
mud field."
Five years later, the Toronto Star, which
had slid profitably into the suburban
newspaper market, bought fifty per cent
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