CINCINNATI – Joseph P. Clayton, president of Global Crossing North America Inc., has been elected to the board of directors of The E. W. Scripps Company.Clayton fills a vacancy created earlier this year when the Scripps board increased the number of its members from 10 to 12. The board elected Clayton during its quarterly meeting May 25.“Joe Clayton is an extraordinary executive who has proven entrepreneurial instincts and a thorough understanding of the electronic communications business,” said William R. Burleigh, chairman and chief executive officer for Scripps. “He adds a valuable perspective to the Scripps board that complements the company’s evolving interactive media strategy.”Clayton, 50, has been president of Global Crossing North America since October 1999 when the company completed its merger with Frontier Corp. He also serves on the Global Crossing parent company board of directors. Clayton previously was chief executive officer of Frontier and helped lead the transformation of the 100-year-old telephone company into a national customer-focused, entrepreneurial integrated services provider.Global Crossing (NASDAQ: GBLX) owns and operates a state-of-the-art fiber optic network in the United States and is building and offering services over the world’s first global IP-based fiber optic network with 101,000 announced route miles connecting five continents, 27 countries and more than 200 cities.Before taking on chief executive officer responsibilities at Frontier in June 1997, Clayton was executive vice president of marketing and sales for the Americas and Asia for Thomson Multimedia, headquartered in Indianapolis. Thomson designs, manufactures and markets the RCA, ProScan and General Electric brands of consumer electronics, including color TV, video cassette recorders, camcorders, audio and communications products, digital satellite systems and related accessories. Clayton began his career in the consumer electronics business at RCA Corp. in 1973 as a marketing associate, part of an executive training program for MBAs. After completing the program, he was assigned as an advertising administrator for RCA Consumer Electronics in IndianapolisRCA Consumer Electronics was acquired by General Electric in 1986. Two years later the division was acquired by Thompson, S.A. Clayton held a series of key management positions for RCA, GE and Thomson before being recruited as chief executive officer of Frontier.Clayton earned his M.B.A. in marketing and management at Indiana University in Bloomington. He earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration and economics at Bellarmine College in Louisville, Ky.The E.W. Scripps Company operates 20 daily newspapers; 10 broadcast television stations; three TV networks, Home & Garden Television, Food Network and Do It Yourself; and a TV programmer, Scripps Productions. The company also operates United Media, a worldwide syndicator and licensor of news features and comics, and the Scripps Howard News Service. Scripps operates 31 revenue-producing Web sites, including hgtv.com, foodtv.com, diynet.com and comics.com.