Pine Bluff Commercial hires publisher

Ed Graves, a former executive with the Gannett Co., has been hired as publisher of the Pine Bluff Commercial. Graves will also serve as a senior group publisher of several small publications GateHouse owns in Arkansas.

The changes, announced Wednesday, took effect immediately.

The hiring makes Graves the first black publisher of a daily newspaper in the state. The Arkansas Press Association on Thursday said Graves confirmed the hire.

At the Commercial, Graves replaced Byron Tate, who joined the newspaper as a reporter in 1986. Tate eventually worked his way up to editor and publisher.

As senior group publisher, Graves replaced Shane Allen. Graves is a former executive at USA Weekend.

Early this year, Tate announced he had purchased the Sheridan Headlight, in Grant County. Messages left on a cellphone number and at his home telephone number in Pine Bluff and at the newspaper office in Sheridan went unreturned Thursday, but Tate told Arkansas Business that the “hiring of an African- American is historic and overdue.”

Based in Perinton, N. Y., near Rochester, GateHouse also owns the Southwest Times Record in Fort Smith and newspapers in Heber Springs, Hope, Prescott, Gurdon, Arkadelphia, White Hall, Stuttgart, Helena and Newport.