New hires, promotions and relocations across theindustry

The Associated Press has named Julie Pace as its senior vice president and executive editor, where she will lead global news operations and oversee news content in all formats from journalists based in 250 locations in 100 countries. She previously served as assistant managing editor and Washington bureau chief. Pace, who joined AP in 2007 as a video producer, spent the last four years directing multiformat coverage of U.S. politics and elections, national security and domestic policy, leading a team that broke agenda-setting news and collaborating regularly with AP’S network of journalists around the world.

Rodney Mahone, the Georgia market president and corporate vice president of inmarket sales across Mcclatchy’s 30 markets, has retired. During his career he also served as president and publisher of the Columbus Ledger-enquirer (the first African-american in that position), leader of the Macon Telegraph, and regional president and publisher at The Charlotte Observer (the first Africanamerican in that position as well). He also was charged with overseeing other Mcclatchy media outlets in the Carolinas before returning to Columbus in June 2020.

Jack Robb, an accomplished newspaper executive, has been appointed publisher of The Meridian Star in Mississippi. Previously, Robb worked closely with the newspaper’s staff in an advisory role for CNHI, LLC, the paper’s parent company. He also remains publisher of the Valdosta (Georgia) Daily Times.

After working as The Union’s advertising director for over six years, Julia Stidham was named associate publisher of the Grass Valley, California, paper. She previously worked as an assistant manager at General Mills before joining The Union in 1999.

Regional business publication Mibiz announced that manufacturing and economic development executive

Justine Burdette has joined the company as associate publisher. In her new role, Burdette will work with the entire Mibiz team to build the organization’s editorial, sales, audience development and production operations. She’ll work closely with Publisher Brian

Edwards to boost the publication’s efforts to provide high-quality and highvalue business journalism in the Western Michigan region. Previously, Burdette was a vice president at The Right

Place, Inc. and regional director for the Western Michigan office of the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center.

Bill Church, who started his newspaper career covering high school sports for an Oklahoma weekly and most recently helped oversee 150 newsrooms across the nation, is the new executive editor of The News & Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina) and The Herald-sun (Durham, North Carolina). Church is a Japanese-american, born on an Air Force base in Japan while his father was serving overseas. He will be the first person of color to serve in the newsroom’s top leadership role in The News & Observer’s 156-year history.

The Sacramento Bee has hired two distinguished and talented journalists. Josh Gohlke, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from Stanford University, becomes the paper’s new deputy opinion editor.

Robin Epley, a Sacramento native who grew up in the Foothill Farms neighborhood and graduated from Chico State University, joins the staff as an opinion writer.

David Kennard has been named executive editor of The Robesonian in Lumberton, North Carolina. He occupies an office that has been vacant since Donnie Douglas left the newspaper in March 2020. Kennard comes from Fayetteville, where he helped launch the Greater Fayetteville Business Journal.

The Marshall (Texas) News Messenger has welcomed Meredith Shamburger to its staff, as she assumes the role of regional editor. Shamburger is a Carthage native who has worked with M.roberts Media, the News Messenger’s parent company, for more than five years. She previously oversaw the Panola Watchman and the Kilgore News Herald.

The News Media Alliance has promoted Danielle Coffey to executive vice president and general counsel. In addition to leading the organization’s advocacy and strategy around ensuring a digital future for journalism, Coffey will oversee government affairs and policy matters that reflect the news publishers’ core mission of a flourishing, free and independent press. Coffey joined the Alliance in April 2015 and has focused on the intersection of technology and public policy.

Hearst Television has announced the launch of Hearst Media Production Group, and Frank Biancuzzo,a longtime Hearst Television and media executive, has been named president of the production group. A successor to Biancuzzo in his most recent role of Hearst Television executive vice president and group head will be announced at a later date.

Rana Cash has been named executive editor of The Charlotte Observer in North Carolina. Cash will lead editorial and digital strategy and manage the Observer’s talented team of journalists. She also will be part of Mcclatchy’s News Leadership Team. Cash joins The Observer from

The Savannah Morning News, where she served as executive editor and director for Georgia’s Gannett markets.

Bloomberg Media has hired Colm Murphy as its new global head of strategy. Murphy comes to Bloomberg

Media from The&partnership and its sister media agency, M/SIX, where he served as chief strategy officer. He is filling a position that has been vacant for a year, after former global head of strategy Anne Kawalerski was promoted to the role of global chief marketing officer.

Mike Cutillo has been named publisher of the Finger Lakes Times in Geneva, New York. He succeeds

Mark Lukas, who will leave the Times in mid-october but continue working for Community Media Group, the newspaper’s Illinois-based parent company, in a more specialized role.

Lukas will continue in his role as advertising director until a successor is hired.

Emily Clough has joined the News Product team at The Washington

Post as senior product editor for taxonomy and metadata. She is the first newsroom hire for Wapo 360, the cross-company collaboration that will build a new structure for organizing Post content. Clough joins the paper from Siriusxm, where she created and managed metadata systems to help listeners find the shows and songs they want to hear. She also launched software to catalogue the thousands of images used on the satellite broadcaster’s platforms.

Sarah Bartlett, dean of the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York, has announced that after two decades at CUNY, she will retire next June following the end of the academic year. By that time, she will have served nearly nine years as dean of the journalism school.

Keith Diederich has recently joined Lineup Systems as the North American marketing manager. It is a new position for Lineup as the company is focused on growing the North American market. More specifically, the team will market Lineup’s premier solutions Adpoint and Amplio. Diederich joins Lineup from Battelle Memorial Institute where he spent five years on the marketing team in various roles.

Adams Publishing Group has announced the hire of the new general sales manager Lloyd White and managing editor Tyler Johnson to the Rocket Miner newspaper in Sweetwater County (Wyoming). Prior to his appointment, White had been in Rock Springs for about five months, working as a multimedia account executive and was previously working at Rocket Miner’s sister newspaper, the Laramie Boomerang. Johnson succeeds

Caleb Michael Smith, who stepped down as managing editor in August. Smith had been part of the newsroom since early 2006.

Florida A&M University Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Maurice Edington, PH.D., has announced Mira Lowe as the next dean of the School of Journalism & Graphic Communication. Lowe is scheduled to take the helm on Oct. 22. Professor

Bettye Grable, PH.D., has served as interim SJGC dean since March 2020.

Nate Rackiewicz has joined Gannett as chief data officer, a newly-created role overseeing the company’s vision, strategy and execution of data, analytics and science across all business units. In a first for Gannett, Rackiewicz will lead a global team that will implement the company’s enterprise-wide customer identity, data and growth analytics as well as data science and modeling capabilities.

Teresa Lindeman and David Garth have been named co-managing editors of the Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) Postgazette. Lindeman’s focus will be on day-to-day oversight of the news report and staff development, while Garth will direct the newsroom’s multimedia editing structure and production functions.

Aila Boyd has been named editor of The Franklin News-post (Rocky Mount, Virginia) and Laker magazine. She briefly worked in Franklin County while a reporter for The Martinsville Bulletin in 2016, and returns to the county after most recently serving as publisher of the Central Virginian, a newspaper and website covering Louisa County and Lake Anna.

The Daily Beast digital news site has named Tracy Connor as its top editor. She had been acting in the role since

Noah Shachtman recently left it for the top job at Rolling Stone magazine. Connor will now lead all of the editorial strategy and functions of the publication’s newsroom.

Juliet Eilperin has been named deputy climate and environment editor for

The Washington Post. In her new role, Eilperin will oversee coverage of the struggle to manage a changing climate, with a special focus on efforts — in Washington and around the world — to transform our fossil fuel-dependent economy and rein in greenhouse gas emissions. She also will coordinate with desks across the newsroom to cover extreme weather and other destructive manifestations of global warming.

The Laramie Boomerang and Rawlins Times welcomes Greg Johnson, a veteran Wyoming journalist, as managing editor for the publications. Johnson comes to the Gem City from Gillette, where he spent more than seven years as managing editor for the Gillette News Record.

News and media fundraising professional Lisa Gardnerspringer is joining the Institute for Nonprofit News in the new role of chief development officer, building institutional and individual support for the INN and the Newsmatch campaign that is transforming community support of public service journalism. She will lead development initiatives benefiting the 350 nonprofit newsrooms that are members of INN.

Sara Libby has joined The Chronicle (San Francisco, California) as the politics editor, overseeing coverage from the Bay Area, Sacramento and Washington, D.C. She joined the paper from Voice of San Diego, a nonprofit investigative news outlet, where she was managing editor.

Susan King, dean of the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media and the school’s John Thomas Kerr Distinguished Professor, will conclude her service as dean but will remain in place until a successor is named. A search for her successor has editorandpublisher.com been launched. King began her service as dean in January 2012.

Three journalists have joined the staff of the Center for Public Integrity and will contribute to the nonprofit news organization’s investigative reporting on the causes and effects of inequality in the United States. Melissa

Hellmann joins Public Integrity as a reporter covering racial, gender and economic inequality; Sophie Austin, as an American University fellow; and

Amy Dipierro, as a data journalist.

Ed Komenda, who has served as the Reno Gazette Journal’s reporter in Las Vegas since 2019, will step into a new role as the paper’s investigations editor. Komenda will work to elevate the paper’s coverage by helping its journalists tell stories that change lives and laws for the better.

Misty Castile has been named the top editor at the Shreveport (Louisiana) Times, replacing Scott Ferrell, who moved to another position with Gannett. Castile will lead the Times’ staff to keep readers updated on how community happenings impact readers’ lives. Before coming to the Times, Castile was managing editor of the Hot Springs Village Voice where she started her career and won multiple Arkansas Press Association writing awards. She was also part of a state leadership team with newsrooms in Mountain Home and Fort Smith.

The Desert Sun in Palm Springs, California, has gained two new staff members: Nicole Kottmann as features editor and Andy Abeyta as a photojournalist. Kottmann, who goes by Niki, previously served as the features editor for the Wyoming Tribune Eagle in Cheyenne for two years. Abeyta joins The Desert Sun’s photography team after working as a visual journalist for The Gazette in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he photographed daily assignments for all sections of the newspaper.

John W. Davis has joined the Presstelegram newsroom, covering Long Beach, California, sports full-time. He most recently worked as a beat reporter/podcast host covering the WNBA and the LA Sparks with Winsidr.com for the past three years.

Morgan Coates has joined The Washington Post as the London hub photography editor. Coates has been a successful photography editor for two decades. He has worked at leading photography agencies and publications, including NBC News, The Sunday Times, The Sun, Daily Star Sunday, Wireimage, Getty and The Associated Press.

Troy Thibodeaux, who has led data journalism efforts for The Associated Press since 2013, is now director of digital news. He will oversee the Data Analysis and News Applications team, the News Design and Graphics team, the News Research team and the new Audience and Platforms team.