NEWSPEOPLE

New hires, promotions and relocations across the industry

Ian Kirkwood has been named publisher of the Eastern Arizona Courier and the Copper Era in Safford, succeeding Belinda Mills. Kirkwood, a 20-year veteran of the news industry, was general manager of the Courier’s sister papers in Green Valley. Mills has relocated to Las Cruces, New Mexico, to be with her daughter and grandchildren. She has accepted a position as the southwest regional group publisher for Osteen Media Group.

Wick Communications veteran Ken Harty has been named publisher of The Daily Iberian in New Iberia, Louisiana. He succeeds Michael Messerly. Harty, who has spent his career in the news industry, worked for The Daily Iberian from 2002 to 2006. He has also worked at the Wahpeton Daily News and Williston Herald in North Dakota, the Roanoke Rapids Daily Herald in North Carolina, and the Fergus Falls Daily Journal in Minnesota.

Paul Gaier has joined Adams Publishing Group as its new regional president for Northern Wisconsin, working with newspapers in Eau Claire, Rice Lake, Spooner, Ashland, Sawyer County and Price County. The move marks a return to his roots for Gaier, who began his career getting an upclose view of operations in Chippewa Falls, where his father was publisher.

Sam Jacobs is the new editor in chief of TIME. He is the youngest editor to lead TIME since co-founder Henry Luce. During his decade at TIME,

Jacobs has been instrumental in setting the strategic direction of the editorial team and leading TIME’S trusted journalism across all platforms. In addition to hiring dozens of journalists around the world, he has played a major role in the integration of TIME’S newsroom across platforms.

Natalie Acra has been promoted from general manager to publisher of the Daily News in Greensburg, Indiana. She began at the Daily News in 2004, working in the advertising and graphics department. Prior to being named general manager, she served as an assistant to the publisher.

Ray King, retail sales manager at The Daily News in Iron Mountain, Michigan, has been named the newspaper’s new publisher. The longtime Iron Mountain resident succeeds Corky

Deroeck, who has retired. King also has assumed the roles of advertising director and general manager for Powers Printing, which prints The Daily News along with the Daily Press in Escanaba, The Mining Journal in Marquette and the Daily Mining Gazette in Houghton.

USA TODAY editor-in-chief Nicole

Carroll has joined the ASU Media Enterprise as executive director of a new initiative focused on reimagining local journalism. As the head of the initiative, Carroll will work with Arizona State University’s Media Enterprise team, the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass

Communication and other university departments to develop new strategies for reporting on local communities, as well as innovations and business models to help local news operations thrive.

The Daily Press in Escanaba, Michigan, is under new leadership.

Sarah Maki, who has served as an advertising professional with the paper for 14 years, has been selected to take the helm as the Daily Press’ newest publisher. She is a life-long Delta County resident, who is originally from the Rapid River area and now lives in Escanaba.

Graham Media Group, the local media division of Graham Holdings Company, has announced that

Jane Marshall has been named to the position of vice president, co-general counsel. Marshall joined Graham Media Group in 2006 and was promoted to associate general counsel in 2013, and deputy general counsel in 2021.

Karyn Saemann, editor of The Gazette (Janesville, Wisconsin), will retain that role and has additionally assumed a dual role as regional editor for APG Southern Wisconsin. She will continue to primarily work out of The Gazette office, but will have a heightened presence in the other communities that have APG Southern Wisconsin publications. As regional editor, she will direct editorial operations for

APG Southern Wisconsin’s six daily publications, as well as its nine weekly

print and digital publications that are part of Hometown News Group. Other editors who assumed new leadership roles with Apg-southern Wisconsin include News Editor Madeline Westberg, News Editor Brian O’connor and Regional Sports Editor Tim Seeman.

Sylvia Banderas Coffinet has been named CEO of Latino Media Network.

She joins founders Stephanie Valencia and Jessica Morales Rocketto in scaling one of the largest Latina-owned multi-platform audio and media companies to serve the Hispanic market in the U.S. today.

She will oversee finance, operations, corporate strategy and development to drive market growth and profitability for LMN. Most recently, she served as general manager, marketing equity and inclusion partnerships for Vox Media.

CNN announced new roles for two of its most experienced anchors and political reporters as part of its plans for the 2024 presidential cycle. CNN Chief National Correspondent John King will lead a new reporting project focused on voters in key battleground states as the 2024 presidential campaign cycle gets underway. The project will follow the voters who pick presidents and settle close races, giving them a voice and telling in-depth and nuanced stories about how they view politicians and political issues throughout the election cycle. Chief Political Correspondent

Dana Bash is the new anchor of “Inside Politics” weekday, one of the top platforms for the network’s coverage of campaigns and government. Bash also will continue as co-anchor of “State of the Union with Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.”

Meg Tirrell has joined CNN as a medical correspondent. She will report health and wellness stories for all CNN platforms. Previously, Tirrell was CNBC’S senior health and science reporter, where she covered the development of new medicines for Alzheimer’s, cancer and rare diseases, and tracked public health emergencies from Ebola and Zika to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The University of Maryland has named Rafael Lorente dean of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism, effective July 1. Lorente currently serves as associate dean for academic affairs and director of the master’s program for UMD’S Philip Merrill College of Journalism.

The Financial Times has appointed Soumaya Keynes as an economics podcast host and columnist. Keynes is currently Britain economics editor at The Economist and will join the FT in the summer. In her column, Keynes will write about the new ideas, old arguments and current debates over the economy and how they are shaping our world. She also will host a new weekly economics podcast that will launch in 2024.

Variety has promoted Jem Aswad to lead all music content across digital, print and live media platforms as executive editor, music. Aswad will oversee all aspects of Variety‘s musicrelated editorial operations and staff. He also will continue to serve as Variety‘s leading voice on the business of music, penning cover stories, deepdive features, investigative stories, personality profiles and reviews.

Milena Alberti-perez and Margaret Low have been elected to the NPR board of directors. Alberti-perez will serve as an NPR Public Director. Low, CEO of WBUR Boston, was elected to serve as a Member Director.

Newsnation has signed former congressman and director of the Office of Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney as a political and economic contributor. He will offer commentary and analysis across the network’s daytime and primetime programming, including the new political ensemble program, “The Hill,” and special election and political coverage.

Kristen Go is Calmatters’ new editor in chief, bringing extensive experience in high-quality local and national journalism to the eightyear-old nonprofit newsroom. Born and raised in California, Go joins Calmatters from USA TODAY, where she was vice president and executive editor for news and initiatives.

Christine “Chris” Dotts, a veteran communications executive, has been named the new president of the Cronkite Endowment Board of Trustees at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Dotts, who is a senior vice president at Brodeur Partners and has served on the board since 2018, succeeds Anita Helt, vice president and general manager of ABC15 Arizona and CW61 Arizona. Helt, who had served as board president since 2017, will remain on the board as past president.

Source Media Properties has announced that Jay Allred has been promoted to the position of chief executive officer. Allred, who has been with the company since its inception in 2013, has been serving as president since 2017.

Pauline Arrillaga has been named executive director of the National Center on Disability and Journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. Arrillaga, executive editor of the Carnegie-knight News21 program at the Cronkite School, will take over for Kristin Gilger, who has led the NCDJ since 2008 and is retiring this summer. Cronkite Professor Nicole Macias will oversee the NCDJ’S international journalism awards programs, which recognize excellence in disability reporting.

Laura Coates has been promoted to CNN’S chief legal analyst. She has played a central role in the network’s extensive legal programming, serving as an anchor for CNN’S prime time programs, hosting impactful specials and a CNN Town Hall. Coates, who will continue filling in as an anchor across CNN programming, was previously CNN’S senior legal analyst and is a constitutional expert, attorney, commentator, author and former adjunct professor at the George Washington University School of Law.

POLITICO has announced that Jen Hurley has been named senior vice president of finance for operations in North America. Hurley joins POLITICO from The Washington Post where she served as the organization’s director of finance, working across all parts of the organization to upgrade the financial function.

LSU has named Kimberly Bissell the dean of the Manship School of Mass Communication, effective July 24, pending approval by the LSU board of supervisors. Bissell is currently an administrator and faculty member at the University of Alabama’s College of Communication and Information Sciences, where she serves as associate dean for research; executive director of the Institute for Communication & Information Research; director of the Health Communication Research Lab; and the Southern Progress Corporation Endowed Professor in Magazine Journalism.

Dr. Angela Jerome, communication professor, has been named assistant director of the newly merged School of Media & Communication in the Potter College of Arts & Letters at Western Kentucky University. This position will start on July 1. The assistant director role will aid the director with the school’s budget, assist with outreach and recruitment efforts, and work with program coordinators on scheduling and space allocation.

The Ad Council has announced that DJ Perera has joined the organization as chief media officer. She succeeds Kathy Kayse, who retired after leading the Media team for five years. Prior to joining the Ad Council, Perera led Boehringer Ingelheim’s U.S. Media Center of Excellence, managing all aspects of direct-to-consumer and health care professionals paid media for the company’s brands.

Marita Pérez Díaz has joined American Press Institute’s Product Strategy team as a web applications engineer. In her role, she will support the technical development of API’S news products, including audience data tools Metrics for News and Source Matters.

The Atlantic has hired Tyler Watson as executive vice president of marketing. Watson joins The Atlantic from Condé Nast, where he was most recently global VP of production and activation and led a team that delivered over 800 marketing campaigns annually across industries.

Melody Morgan has joined the Association of Health Care Journalists as its first development officer. In this new role, she will create and execute a fundraising plan that builds on AHCJ’S previous relationships with foundations while developing new strategies for diversifying revenue.

Centerfield, an outcome-based marketing service for digital customer acquisition, has appointed Kris Barton as chief executive officer. Barton joins Centerfield from Gannett, where he was president of Digital Marketing Solutions.

G/O Media has named Rory Carroll as editor in chief of Jalopnik, one of the largest automotive news and opinion sites covering car culture, the auto industry, racing, transportation, airplanes, technology, motorcycles and much more. He rejoins Jalopnik, where he served as editor in chief from 2020 to 2022. For the past two years he worked in an executive role at RM Sotheby’s.

Guardian US has appointed Lauren N.

Williams as its new deputy editor for race and equity. She joins Guardian US following a five-year tenure at The Atlantic, most recently as a senior editor where she launched a vertical dedicated to the complexity of American identity and commissioned idea-driven pieces on religion, subcultures, the arts, sports and sociopolitical movements.

Cheryl Lu-lien Tan, BSJ97, will serve as the inaugural holder of the George R.R. Martin Chair in Storytelling at the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University. Tan, a journalist, author and teacher, will lead the George R.R. Martin Summer Intensive Writing Workshop, as well as teach courses across a breadth of genres to both undergraduate and graduate students.

Award-winning public media journalist Tonya Mosley has been named co-host of “Fresh Air with Terry Gross,” the radio program and podcast devoted to contemporary arts and issues, produced by WHYY in Philadelphia and distributed by NPR. Terry Gross will continue as co-executive producer and host. Mosley is a correspondent and former host of “Here & Now,” the midday radio show from NPR and WBUR Boston, and the creator and host of the podcast “Truth Be Told.” She has been a regular contributing interviewer for “Fresh Air” since 2021.

Cassie Thornton has joined Bloomberg Media as head of Intellectual Property (IP) Partnerships.

She will be responsible for leading Bloomberg Media’s commercial IP team, collaborating with the company’s editorial team to market and license its slate of stories to production companies, streamers and TV Networks. Thornton most recently worked with the award-winning production company, Raw TV.

The National Press Club Journalism Institute has appointed Beth Francesco, an experienced educator, press freedom advocate and editor, as the organization’s next executive director. She has served as interim executive director since October, when Julie Moos left the role.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism welcomes Isabel Hilton and Richard Sambrook as co-chairs of the board. Hilton is the founder of China Dialogue. She worked for the Daily Express and The Sunday Times before joining the launch team for The Independent. She later worked on The World Tonight, as a columnist for The Guardian and for the New Yorker as a staff writer. Sambrook is emeritus professor of journalism at Cardiff University. He was previously the director of BBC News and worked at the corporation for 30 years.

The Military Reporters & Editors association, the organization for U.S. journalists covering national security, has announced the election of its new board members. Howard Altman, a seasoned journalist with an extensive background in military reporting, was elected as the new president of the board. He succeeds Jeff Schogol.

Joining Altman are Jen Judson as