Retired TV news reporter Paul Krueger has always seen himself as a disruptor and community activist.
Starting in 1989, he spent 32 years at KNSD-TV NBC 7 San Diego as a reporter and producer for investigative, consumer and medical reporting teams.
“Our job at the TV station was to expose the deception, corruption and cover-ups, whether it was politics, government affairs or legal, and protect consumers from fraud,” Krueger, 69, told Times of San Diego.
Overall, he has spent 45 years as a San Diego-based reporter and editor while also working at daily and weekly newspapers and local and national magazines.
Prior to his three decades in TV news, he worked as a freelance reporter stringing for Time, Fortune, Money, People and other Time-Life magazines for 13 years, along with the National Enquirer. He also was a staffer and columnist for the San Diego Reader for 12 years (1975-1978, 1981-1989). And, he spent a couple of years as a columnist and reporter for The San Diego Union-Tribune (1978-1979).
Nowadays, Krueger is spending his time attending San Diego City Council meetings and opposing some of San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria’s policies as a volunteer for a grassroots citizens group called Neighbors for a Better San Diego.
The group, based in San Diego’s Kensington-Talmadge community where Krueger lives, advocates for sensible growth, realistic planning and coherent transit strategies. Lately, he is opposing the mayor’s plan that advances increasing residential neighborhood density by allowing developers to build multi-unit auxiliary dwelling units (ADUs) without parking on single-family lots.
“The mayor’s efforts are ineffective and misplaced,” said Krueger. “We’re not opposed to all granny-flat construction for multi-generational living. We’re just trying to mitigate the extreme impacts of ADUs with parking restrictions, more trees and some constraints on larger projects, such as additional space between granny flats and property lines, that can really impact surrounding neighborhoods.
“People are frustrated by the inability to become single-family homeowners in San Diego. The result has been an exodus from California.”
Krueger is one of the core members of Neighbors for a Better San Diego, which was founded shortly after Krueger retired from the TV station in 2021.
“Neighbors started about two years ago when we learned that a developer and investors had purchased a single-family home at under false pretenses and were converting it into a six-unit apartment complex as an ADU with no notice to, or input from, the neighbors,” Krueger said. “A group of about 10 neighbors held an impromptu meeting in the traffic circle near a park and we grew from there. We now have a mailing list of about 7,000 San Diegans, mostly residents in council districts 9 and 3.
“It was pure coincidence that Neighbors got started just a month or so after my TV news career ended. I was more than happy to lend my journalism skills to pursue our goals.”
In addition to the Neighbors group, Krueger has walked precincts and raised money for political candidates, mostly Democrats.
He was a volunteer for Barbara Bry’s unsuccessful mayoral campaign against Gloria, as well as the unsuccessful city council campaigns for Tommy Hough in District 6 and Lori Saldana in District 2.
He’s also currently working with a group of Southeast San Diego residents who are hoping to get funding to improve Mountain View Park with a new baseball diamond and rename it for Neal Petties, a former San Diego State University football player and pro athlete who spend his retirement years mentoring youth at the park’s rec center.
“I had never planned to do anything like this in my life after journalism,” Krueger admits. “Initially, I thought about doing some more freelance writing, editing and research. But, lately, I’ve been too busy volunteering to pursue that job.”
SDSU’s Journalism and Media Studies Hosts Taco Bell PR Exec
San Diego State University’s School of Journalism and Media Studies will host a presentation on “The Future of PR” by Matt Prince, director of marketing communications and public relations at Taco Bell, starting at 6 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 2 at the SDSU Parma Payne Goodall Alumni Center, 5500 Campanile Drive.
Admission is free. The public is invited to attend. Metered parking is located in Parking #7, adjacent to the Alumni Center. For information, contact the journalism school office at 619-594-5450. A new mentor program also will be announced at the event.
Named to the top 40 Professionals Under 40 list by OC Metro Magazine, Prince is a frequent speaker at universities around the country on topics of personal branding, social media, professional development and millennial workforce trends.
At Taco Bell, he is responsible for leading communications strategy and earned media coverage for Taco Bell’s largest marketing campaigns, collaborations and partnerships.
Prior to Taco Bell, he led social media engagement for The Walt Disney Co., where he developed and managed the company’s first-ever social media command center and online engagement program. He also served as senior manager of executive communications, handling speech writing and strategic communications for more than 70 executives based at the Disneyland Resort.
Prior to Disney, Prince served as director of communications for the Orange County Business Council where he was responsible for all marketing, media, web and communication components for the organization representing over 200 of Southern California’s largest employers.
He also worked in the public information and mayor’s office for the City of Anaheim where he was responsible for the strategic marketing campaign for the City’s 150th Anniversary.
He served as President of the Public Relations Society of America’s Orange County Chapter in 2014.
A native of the Southern California, Prince received his bachelor’s degree from California State University Fullerton in communications. At his alma mater, he has served as the professional advisor for the Public Relations Student Society of America since 2011 and was inducted into the PRSSA Hall of Fame.
New Havas Formula CEO Has San Diego Ties
Public relations agency Havas Formula, based in New York City with an office in San Diego, has named Tara Reid as CEO. Reid previously served as the agency’s president. Founder and former CEO Michael Olguin is now the agency’s chairman. Also named was Adrienne Cadena as CEO for Havas Street, the agency’s experiential division.
In 2008, Reid joined Havas Formula’s San Diego office before relocating to Chicago in 2016 to open that office. In San Diego, she managed accounts within the agency’s Consumer West division.
“I couldn’t be more optimistic about the future of Havas Formula,” said Olguin. “With the PR and experiential landscapes changing more rapidly than ever, Tara and Adrienne have what it takes to enhance and expand our offerings, drive culture amid the evolving world of work, and continue our track record of impressive growth. Leading with passion, intelligence, intuition and empathy, Tara and Adrienne bring the very best leadership traits to lock arms and shape the agency’s next 30 years.”
“Havas Formula has forged a path of bravery for the last 30 years, which I have been fortunate to be a part of, and I’m thrilled to continue paving the way in this new role,” Reid said. “To set us up for transformative success, I’m excited to cultivate a culture of collaboration, foster the growth of our teams, whose talent is unmatched, and unlock new business opportunities to make a meaningful impact in the lives of our people and on the business of our clients.”
The CEO announcement anchors a succession plan to ensure Havas Formula’s sustained growth and expansion in the coming years, the agency said. Olguin founded Formula in 1992 as a national PR boutique, which was acquired by Havas in 2014. In addition to its New York City headquarters, Havas Formula operates North American offices in Miami, Denver, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Diego.
Mindgruve Builds Multilingual Website for Law Firm Procopio
Mindgruve, a San Diego creative marketing agency, said it recently launched a new multilingual, mobile-first website for Procopio, a corporate and litigation law firm with about 200 attorneys in seven offices throughout the U.S., including San Diego.
Mindgruve said its team of strategists, designers, data scientists and engineers conducted an in-depth audit of Procopio’s previous website to develop a new and improved user experience for current and future clients.
The new website includes additional language options, including Spanish, Korean, Japanese and Chinese; new design techniques for mobile and desktop screen resolutions; email sign-ups, contact-us forms and event content integrations; a new resource center featuring articles, press releases, case studies, videos and podcasts; and updated site search functionality with a more user-friendly results page.
“We are very proud to launch a new, re-imagined web presence that builds upon the great legacy and history of Procopio’s world-class brand and commitment to servicing their clients,” said Chad Robley, CEO and founder of Mindgruve. “The project involved a variety of complex requirements in order to successfully craft a future-forward, mobile-first, multilingual website.”
Rick Griffin is a San Diego-based public relations and marketing consultant. His MarketInk column appears weekly on Mondays in Times of San Diego.