NEWSPEOPLE

New hires, promotions and relocations across the industry

Lee Enterprises has named Mike Wood as the next publisher of the Fremont (Nebraska) Tribune. Wood will oversee the Tribune as well as the Wahoo Newspaper, Ashland Gazette and Waverly News. In 2015, he was named publisher of the Midwest Messenger and related Agri-media products the Tri-state Neighbor, The Prairie Star and Farm & Ranch Services.

The Daily Journal in Franklin, Indiana, has announced two staff changes. Editor James Vaughn has promoted news reporter Leeann Doerflein to news editor and long-time reporter Ryan Trares to senior reporter and columnist. Doerflein joined the newspaper staff in March 2020, the same week the first COVID-19 cases were reported in the county. She has led the paper’s ongoing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic ever since.

Mark Sweetwood has announced plans to retire as editor of Mahoning Matters in Youngstown, Ohio, and the Mahoning Valley. “It was a privilege of a lifetime,” he said. “That’s the only way I can sum up these past two years. Justin Dennis will soon take over as editor, and I’ll be leaving by year’s end after helping with the transition.”

Hugh Morton Distinguished-Professor Heidi Hennink-kaminski, current senior associate dean for graduate studies in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Hussman School of Journalism and Media, will become the school’s interim dean on Jan. 1, 2022. She will serve as interim dean until a new dean is appointed. Susan King, dean of the school and John Thomas Kerr Distinguished Professor since Jan. 1, 2012, announced in August that she would step down after a decade as dean. King expects to return to the faculty to teach.

Jim Perry has retired as publisher of three Arkansas newspapers – the Harrison Daily Times, Newton County Times in Jasper and The Baxter Bulletin in Mountain Home – and the West Plains Quill in Missouri, after devoting 45 years of his life to the newspaper industry.

The New York Times recently announced two significant promotions. Hannah Poferl, who has been a top strategist and innovator in the newsroom and key partner to the product development team, has been appointed the company’s first chief data officer and head of audience. Kendell Timmers, a trusted leader within the data and insights group and a highly regarded data scientist and analyst, will assume the role of senior vice president and head of data and insights, reporting to Poferl. Timmers also will join the senior leadership team, as well as the Digital Product Development (Xfun) core leadership team and will be responsible for continuing to build out a worldclass data and insights function and team. She’ll also serve on the crossfunctional data platform mission team in Tech.

Newspaper, advertising and public relations industry veteran Sarah Barrow has been named associate publisher of The Journal Record in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Barrow will lead The Journal Record’s sales and digital marketing operations for events, digital products and print and niche publications.

Cox Enterprises has named Erin Mccandless vice president of commercial operations. She will report to Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary Jennifer Hightower and be based in Atlanta. In this role, Mccandless will serve as a key adviser

to Cox senior leaders on legal risks and legal strategy for the businesses, including newly acquired businesses. She will oversee legal strategy for commercial operations and integration of acquired companies for Cox and will lead a team responsible for the day-to-day operational and integration matters. Mccandless and her team will also support corporate functions such as real estate, marketing and aviation.

Cox Media Group has announced that Chris Eagan has been named VP of audience and operations. In this role Eagan will lead the overarching programming strategy, audience development and multiplatform distribution for CMG Radio. He also will lead the CMG Digital Content team and partnerships to drive innovation for CMG Radio.

Angela Sammons, hired by the Idaho Press in Nampa, Idaho, in 2004, has spent nearly two decades working her way up the rungs of the newspaper’s sales and advertising departments. She was promoted to advertising director recently. Before taking over as ad director, Sammons was the paper’s sales manager.

Michael Breshears has been promoted to director of special publications for Keene Publishing Corp. He has been advertising director for The Sentinel (Keene, New Hampshire) since 2015. Breshears takes over the content and advertising management of several publications, including

The Business Journal of Greater Keene, Peterborough and Brattleboro, ELF and glossy special sections and magazines tied to events.

Chip Minemyer, editor of The Tribune-democrat in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and a regional editor working with the The Times-news of Cumberland, Maryland, has been promoted to general manager of both papers. Minemyer will continue as editor in Johnstown and in his role as regional editor for CNHI newspapers in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, West Virginia and North Carolina.

Quartz has appointed Anna Oakes as its new head of people. In this role, she will be responsible for all aspects of the employee experience, including recruitment, diversity, internal communication, benefits, learning and development, fostering an inclusive culture, and distributed work. She previously was the senior director of talent solutions for Baird, a financial services company where she helped transform the culture and bring more humanity to their work.

The Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI) at the Missouri School of Journalism has announced that Mikaela Rodenbaugh, formerly a project manager for content innovation at Gannett, has joined the institute as senior editor of the innovation team.

The Shreveport (Louisiana) Times has welcomed two new reporters who are bringing life and politics to the Shreveport-bossier area. Meredith G. White and Kendrick Dante are joining the team.

Ismail Turay Jr., a news veteran of two decades, is returning to the Springfield (Ohio) News-sun as its editor. He has a diverse history with Cox Enterprises, the News-sun’s parent company.

Capital Region Independent Media has announced the hiring of executive editor Melanie Lekocevic for the Ravena (New York) News-herald and Greenville (New York) Pioneer and the promotion of Austin Crosier to the position of senior reporter at the newspaper group’s NYVT Media office in Granville, New York.

Josh Givens has joined the Hancock Clarion in Hawesville, Kentucky, where he will report on local government, courts, features and general news in the community. Givens comes to the Clarion with more than 30 years’ experience as a journalist, getting his start as a photojournalist in the U.S. Army.

Kimi Yoshino has left the Los Angeles Times, where she served as managing editor, to become editor in chief of the Baltimore Banner. The new nonprofit publication, funded by Baltimore-area hotel magnate Stewart Bainum Jr., hired the 21-year veteran of The Times to build up a newsroom of roughly 50 journalists focused on local news and launching in 2022, with a goal of expanding in size the following year.

David Cuddihy has been named regional president of Lee Enterprises’ publications in Oregon and Washington, which include the digital and print operations of the Democrat-herald in Albany, the Gazette-times in Corvallis, and The Daily News in Longview. Cuddihy replaces Shanna Cannon who is leaving the company.

Several changes to the leadership of The Washington Post newsroom have been announced. Cameron Barr becomes senior managing editor, in charge of directing the news report day-to-day and over the long term. He will oversee the four deputy managing editors who will drive coverage across the paper’s many platforms. Kat Downs Mulder has moved to a joint role as chief product officer and managing editor. Krissah Thompson’s portfolio as managing editor is expanding, adding oversight of Features and the climate/environment team. She will maintain her focus on coverage of race, gender and identity and her work to build a stronger culture of belonging in the newsroom, and will also take on recruitment and newsroom training. After a distinguished run as a masthead editor, Tracy Grant has requested a return to writing. She will move to a new role on Jan. 1, with more being announced soon about her responsibilities.

Cox Enterprises has hired Erin Mitchell Richeson as the vice president of inclusion and diversity (I&D). In this role, Richeson will lead the implementation of the company’s inclusion, diversity and equity (ID&E) strategy and will report directly to EVP and Chief People and Operations Officer Jill Campbell. She will consult on and support Cox’s efforts around diversity recruitment, employee engagement, diversity learning, talent development and supplier diversity across company divisions.

Lorraine Forte, former executive editor of The Chicago Reporter and former editor-in-chief of Catalyst Chicago, has been named editorial page editor of the Chicago Sun-times. It marks a return to the Sun-times for Forte, who stepped down as a member of the editorial board in August to work for the Chicago Police Department in communications. Earlier in her career she also worked as a reporter for the Sun-times.

Ying Zhao has joined The San Francisco Chronicle as a newsroom engineer on the development team that works on projects across Hearst Newspapers. Zhao joins the newsroom after working for KQED as a data researcher and participating in the New York Times’ COVID-19 data project. She served as a features editor for Hearst Magazines in Shanghai before coming to the States and learning to code. At The Chronicle, Zhao will lead development of major projects, including a collection of election live results pages.

The Baltimore Business Journal has added a new reporter to its editorial team. Giacomo “Jack” Bologna has joined the BBJ’S reporting ranks and will cover technology, innovation and health care. He also will be the lead reporter for Maryland Inno, a companion website to the BBJ that launched in September and focuses on tech and innovation in the state. Bologna succeeds Morgan Eichensehr, who left the publication earlier this month for another opportunity.

The Sumter (South Carolina) Item recently welcomed two multimedia reporters to its newsroom team.

Alaysha Maple joins The Item as a reporter, and Cal Cary joins as a photojournalist and reporter.

Karin Brulliard and Joanna Slater have joined the America desk as national correspondents, adding to The Washington Post’s continued expansion across the United States. Brulliard is based in Colorado and Slater in Massachusetts. They are the latest reporters to join The Post’s growing presence beyond the Beltway, following Holly Bailey and Tim Craig, who recently established new posts in Minnesota and South Florida, respectively. The paper’s roster of national reporters carry front-line responsibilities for covering breaking news in their regions while also concentrating on themes relevant to the nation as a whole or on special projects.

Amanda Erickson, a former deputy campaign editor, also has joined the desk to help oversee the new regional correspondents as a deputy editor. 