A headhunter asked Larry Kramer a few months ago if he was interested in editing USA Today; he said no.

“That was not what I wanted to do at this stage of my life,” the 62-year-old journalist and entrepreneur tells Jon Friedman. “I didn’t think that the transformation could happen at an editor’s spot.”

Larry Kramer

Then he got another phone call.

“I was asked, ‘How would you feel about (running) the whole show?’ I thought, ‘Gee, that’s kind of an interesting idea!’”

Kramer, who was named USA Today president and publisher on Monday, says “I want to make huge changes in a very short time. I want to have some things in place by the time we have our 30th anniversary” on Sept. 15.

“What we need here is what we haven’t had before – a lot of strong voices. Here, it was just the USA Today brand by definition.”

KRAMER ALSO TELLS THE WASHINGTON POST:

* “You have got to have original content in tone or voice, otherwise you’re spinning your wheels. Don’t give me two paragraphs on the Giants game. Tell me what’s wrong with that pitcher’s arm.”

* He plans to have USA Today stress consumer coverage and “maybe entrepreneurialism,” and aims to be “uber strong in entertainment.”

* He wants to help people “sort through what TV shows to watch, what plays to see, what 401(k) plans to invest in. He wants to “help you live your life” but also “tell you things that are important to you that you may not know.”

* “I will lay down on the tracks to protect the investigative reporting here, for all the reasons I got into the business.”

* USA Today’s Larry Kramer: “I love the brand” (Marketwatch.com)
* Kramer jumps back into the fray of digital journalism (Washington Post)
* From 2010: Kramer on how media outlets must change their thinking (AJR)/a>

-- Newseum notice about "Today's Front Pages"

I’ve asked the Newseum to tell Romenesko readers more about its new watermarking system designed “to prevent illegal downloads of the newspaper front pages.” Are the Newseum folks upset about people posting the pages on Facebook and sharing them on other social media sites?

Dan Kennedy makes a good point: “Why wouldn’t a newspaper want to get [its] front page out there as many ways as possible?” (One of his Twitter followers responds: “A newspaper with backwards thinking about the Internet? Shocking!”

UPDATE: Charles Apple has posted the Newseum’s explanation to newspapers that contribute to “Today’s Front Pages”:

UPDATE 2: I didn’t notice until it was pointed out that the Apple post is from a year ago. Meanwhile, the Newseum has tweeted: “Just to clarify the watermarking issue, we only do it occasionally when there is evidence of unauthorized reposting.”

This is being done in response to the large number of websites and other users who download these files and post them without permission from the copyright holders and without crediting the Newseum.

The size of these mass downloads can be as much as 50 to100 GB and is one of the reasons Newseum.org crashed on May 2, 2011.

Our policy on the reuse of these front pages is clearly stated: Any reuse must be cleared with the copyright holder and credit given to the Newseum.

We will conduct this test for a limited period of time and review visitor feedback. You are receiving this email because this is the email of record we have for your newspaper.

“This isn’t about your Uncle Fred sharing covers on Facebook,” and more comments from my Facebook wall.