National Post names new CEO

The outgoing head of the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team, Paul Godfrey, will be the new CEO of the National Post, Canwest has announced.

The position is newly created and Gordon Fisher will remain as the paper’s publisher. Fisher will focus on the day-to-day operations of the Post, while Godfrey is set to look after business development and bringing the paper back to life financially.

Godfrey told the Financial Post that his main task will be putting the paper on the road to profitability. He said:

“I think it’s doable and I will do it.”

Godfrey, also former publisher of the Toronto Sun, has been on Canwest’s board since 2004.

When asked by The Globe and Mail about persistent speculation about the Post‘s demise, Godfrey replied:

“I think that those people that have been writing its obituaries for some time now can put that away for a long period of time, and maybe permanently.”