James N. Crutchfield is a former president and publisher of the Akron Beacon Journal, the original Knight newspaper, and its sister company, Ohio.com. 

Jim became a Knight Foundation trustee in June, 2004, after serving two years as the chair of its Akron Community Advisory Committee. He is a member of the Program Committee.

As publisher, he was an active member of the Akron community. He was a board member of a number of organizations, including the Akron Community Foundation, Greater Akron Chamber, Summit Education Initiative and United Way of Summit County. He chaired the local United Way’s 2004 fund-raising campaign.

He served as publisher in Akron from 2001 to the newspaper's sale in 2006. Between 2007 and 2012, he was on the Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication faculty at Arizona State University and then the faculty of the Department of Journalism and Multimedia Arts at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.

A native of McKeesport, Pa., who grew up in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, he is a product of Pittsburgh Public Schools. He has a bachelor’s degree in communication from Duquesne. He is a former Duquesne board member.

He started his career in 1968 as a reporter for The Pittsburgh Press. He also worked as a reporter for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He joined Knight Ridder newspapers in 1976 as a reporter for the Detroit Free Press. He held numerous positions in news management for Knight Ridder, including deputy managing editor for news at the Free Press, managing editor of the Beacon Journal, senior vice president and executive editor for the Press-Telegram in Long Beach, Calif., and assistant to the publisher of The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News and Philly.com. He was the general manager of the Beacon Journal in 2000-2001.

From 1979 to 1981, he was the press secretary to U.S. Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan.

His professional affiliations include the American Society of Newspaper Editors, National Association of Black Journalists, National Association of Minority Media Executives and the Asian American Journalists Association.

He is married to Becky J. Hoover, J.D. Ph.D., the vice president for talent and human resources at the University of Akron, and between them, they have five children.