Borton retires as president, publisher of The State

Sara Johnson Borton, president and publisher of The State Media Co. for nearly four years, has decided to retire.

Borton, 58, spent most of her career working at South Carolina newspapers in the news, advertising and marketing departments. She became publisher of The Island Packet at Hilton Head in 1993 and also was named publisher of The Beaufort Gazette in 2001. Both of those Lowcountry media companies, along with The State, are owned by the McClatchy Co.

She remained publisher of the two Lowcountry companies after she became publisher of The State in February 2014.

“We are grateful for Sara’s productive tenure and impressive career in South Carolina, the contributions she has made to our company and the communities we serve,” said Sara Glines, regional publisher for McClatchy.

Borton was born in Florida but spent her formative years in South Carolina. She graduated from Winthrop University in Rock Hill and began her career as a part-time reporter at The Rock Hill Times. She joined The Island Packet in 1983 as a sales representative and later became the newspaper’s sales and marketing manager and general manager before becoming publisher.

She is married to Brett Borton, communications professor at USC Beaufort. They are the parents of four children, one of whom is deceased.

“I’m proud of the work we’ve done journalistically,” Borton said. “I think we’ve made our communities better places to live.”

Glines said Borton built strong leadership teams at The State and at the Lowcountry papers. Both teams are positioned to provide their communities with the essential local journalism they need while also providing local companies with multiple advertising solutions, Glines said.

The teams will report to Glines.

Borton said those teams “will continue to uphold the high standards we have set through the years.”

McClatchy operates 30 media companies in 14 states, including The Herald of Rock Hill and The Sun News in Myrtle Beach.

This story was originally published December 4, 2017 at 3:23 PM with the headline "Borton retires as president, publisher of The State."