Blood on the Out-Basket: Lessons in Leadership from a Newspaper Junkie Paperback - 2011

Mike Waller started his newspaper career in 1961 as a sports clerk at The Decatur Herald. After graduating from Millikin University in Decatur, Ill., in 1963, he served for the next 15 years as a reporter and editor at The Herald, The Cleveland Plain Dealer and The Courier-Journal and Louisville Times, where he rose to assistant managing editor and executive sports editor. In 1978, he joined the staff of The Kansas City Star and become the only editor in The Star's history to serve in the top three newsroom positions: managing editor of The Star, managing editor of The Kansas City Times and editor of The Kansas City Star and Times. Waller was named executive editor of The Hartford Courant in 1986, became The Courant's editor in 1990 and was appointed publisher and CEO of The Courant in 1994. Three years later he was named publisher and CEO of The Sun in Baltimore and senior vice president of the Times Mirror Co. During his 41-year career, he worked for newspapers that won dozens of national journalism awards, including eight Pulitzer Prizes. He retired at the end of 2002 and he and his wife Donna now live on Hilton Head Island, SC. He has written one other book, "Durand's Marvelous Merchants: A Tale of Small-Town Life and Big-Time Softball," which is available on Amazon.com and TheKansasCityStore.com.