T-L Photo/Jennifer Compston-Strough
Pictured is Perry Nardo with his wife, Jayme, right, at a retirement celebration in Nardo’s honor. After more than four decades in the newspaper business, Nardo is retiring as general manager of The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register.
WHEELING — Forty-three years ago, Perry Nardo began a career that would see him ascend from an advertising sales representative at The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register to a regional publisher overseeing several newspapers in the region.
Along the way he would craft his own unique leadership style that saw him both demand and receive the best from himself and his employees. That’s no surprise given his passion for coaching and lifting up others — a passion that runs deep in his family.
Nardo’s newspaper career came to its conclusion on Friday when the longtime general manager of the Wheeling newspapers and also regional publisher for The Ogden Newspapers marked his final day on the job.
“I feel so privileged to have spent a career working with such great people here at The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register — individuals who were fully committed to their craft and to making this community a better place,” Nardo said. “My greatest memories will always be about those I worked with and the communities we served. It was my calling and I’m so proud of all the work we did to help provide Ohio Valley residents with the most important news of the day.
“Every day our team did something great, and that doesn’t happen without really good people. As I look back over the past 40 years, the team I worked with was so important not only to my success, but the success of the newspapers and these communities. That’s what I’ll miss the most — my team.”
Nardo, a Key, Ohio native, Bellaire St. John High School and Ohio University graduate, began his career in August 1981 as an advertising sales representative in Wheeling. He worked that role until the end of 1986, when he accepted the advertising director’s position at The Southwest Times in Pulaski, Virginia. In early 1988, Nardo became publisher of the Radford News Journal in Radford, Virginia, followed by being named advertising director of The Daily Progress in Charlottesville, Virginia, in February 1989.
He returned to the Upper Ohio Valley in February 1990 as publisher of the Wetzel Chronicle and Tyler Star-News. He returned to Wheeling in 1993 as The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register’s retail advertising manager, and in 1996 was named the newspapers’ advertising director. He assumed his current general manager’s role in June 1999, and in 2018 became a regional publisher for The Ogden Newspapers.
Along the way Nardo also found time to be involved in numerous professional and civic organizations working to better our local communities. He also coached high school football for more than a decade at Bellaire St. John High School and Bishop Donahue High School.
Nardo served for years on the Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors and was its chairman in 2016. He also sat on the Ohio University Eastern Advisory board and on the board of the Wheeling-based Regional Economic Development Partnership. Nardo was a member of the New Martinsville Rotary Club, the Wheeling Rotary Club (morning gathering) and the Shadyside Knights of Columbus.
Nardo was a longtime advocate for West Virginia’s newspapers. He served for years as a West Virginia Press Association board member, and was president in 2014 and again in 2022. In 2018, the Press Association honored Nardo with the Adam R. Kelly Award, the most prestigious honor for a newspaperman in West Virginia.
The award is named after the late Adam R. Kelly, a longtime columnist for The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register who authored the popular “Country Editor” column that for many years provided valuable guidance and insight to readers and the region.
Outside of his professional life, Nardo was a family man. He and his wife of 43 years, Jayme, raised three boys — Matt, Bryan and Luke. Nardo took an active role with his sons, coaching them in various sports before moving on to Bellaire St. John and Bishop Donahue High School.
That desire to coach others trickled down to his children, as all three currently are involved in coaching college football: Matt is the head coach at Bluffton University in Bluffton, Ohio; Bryan is the defensive coordinator at Oklahoma State University; and Luke is a graduate assistant at West Virginia University.
Nardo thanked his wife for being at his side throughout his career. “Jayme always understood the commitment this profession expects of us. The news business is a 24/7 endeavor, and none of us could do it without support at home. So not only to Jayme but to all the spouses and partners of our employees, I would like to say thank you. We couldn’t do it without you.”
Nardo said he and Jayme plan to travel in retirement to spend time with their sons, daughters-in-law and their five grandchildren — Joseph, Sam, Gianna, Dominick and Elijah. Along the way he’ll continue to think about the relationships he made over 43 years and how those relationships impacted his career.
“As I reach the end of this chapter, what really stands out for me are the people with whom I worked,” Nardo said. “They all took their professions so seriously, and worked daily with one simple mission: to tell our communities’ stories through the pages of the newspaper and our digital platforms. That’s such an important calling and responsibility, and I loved every minute I gave to this profession.”