NEWSPEOPLE

New hires, promotions and relocations across the industry .................

Katy Murray has been promoted to executive vice president for A.H. Belo Corp. Murray, who is also chief financial officer, joined

A.H. Belo in April 2015 from Sourcehov, a technology-enabled business services company. Previously, she held top executive accounting jobs at several multinational public software and service companies. Murray also serves as treasurer of the board of directors at Downtown Dallas Inc. and treasurer of Dallas Morning News Charities.

Paul Taylor has been elected to Hearst’s board of directors. Currently, he serves as senior vice president of Hearst, as well as president, chief executive officer and group head of Fitch Group, which he joined in 2012. He previously served as president of Fitch Ratings, a provider of credit ratings, commentary and research. Prior to that, he spent two years as global head of structured finance ratings and held a variety of analytical leadership positions at Fitch Ratings.

Douglas E. Horne has been appointed as chief financial officer for Gannett. He succeeds Alison Engel, who has stepped down. Horne most recently served as global controller for the We Company, which includes commercial real estate leasing firm Wework. Prior to that, he spent eight years as an executive at Warner Media (formerly Time Warner), where he served as senior vice president and controller.

Sarabeth Berman has been named chief executive officer for the American Journalism Project (AJP). She succeeds co-founder John Thornton as AJP’S day-to-day leader. Most recently, Berman served as global head of public affiars at Tech for All, a global network of 53 social enterprises tackling education challenges. In that role, she helped build national movements to expand oppurtunities for students and promote change in education around the world.

Mary Kelli Palka, editor of the Florida Times-union in Jacksonville, has been named the newspaper’s market leader after group publisher Bill Offill announced his departure from the company. Offill is relocating to

Texas to be closer to family. Palka joined the Times-union in 2003 as a staff writer and has served in several roles since then including investigations editor and managing editor.

Shanna Dickens has been named publisher of the Daily Iberian in New Iberia, La. Prior to being named publisher, Dickens was hired as the associate editor for Acadiana Lifestyle in 2013. Shortly afterwards, she was promoted to editor of the publication. When Wick Communications purchased the publication in 2018, Dickens was named director of content for both Acadiana Lifestyle and the Daily Iberian.

Jewell Walston has been named Gannett’s Western North Carolina Group executive editor. She will be based in Asheville, N.C. and lead the Citizen Times, where she has served as a sports columnist. In addition, Walston will oversee Gannett’s Hendersonville Times-news, Gaston Gazette and Shelby Star. She suceeds former news director Katie Wadington who is now helping lead a fact-checking team with USA Today. Previously, Walston served as regional sports director for Gannett’s

South region, a role she adopted last August. Walston’s career also includes stints at the Cincinnati Enquirer, Detroit News, Newport News (Va.) Daily Press, Winston-salem (N.C.) Journal and Newsday.

Mark Daniel, sales manager for Hanford (Calif.) Sentinel, has been promoted to general manager. He first joined the Sentinel in 1977 and worked at the newspaper off-and-on in various roles including general manager and publisher for 27 of the last 43 years. In addition, content editor Parker Bowman has been promoted to managing editor. He has been with the Sentinel since December 2017. He has also worked at newspapers in Visalia and Xenia, Ohio in varying capacities.

David Nordman, executive editor for the Telegram & Gazette in Worcester, Mass., has been promoted to oversee the newspaper’s sister outlets which includes the Metrowest

Daily News in Framingham, Milford (Mass.) Daily News and The Gardner (Mass.) News. Nordman became the Telegram & Gazette’s executive editor in 2018. In the past, he has served in a variety of roles including sports editor, deputy managing editor and copy editor.

Audrey Harvin, managing editor of the Burlington County Times in New Jersey, has been named executive editor of the newspaper as well as the Courier Post in Cherry Hill, N.J. and the Daily Journal in Vineland, N.J. In her new role, Harvin will oversee the combined newsroom operations of the three Gannett-owned newspapers. She has served as managing editor at the County Times since 2016 while also serving as managing editor of the Bucks County Courier Times and the Intelligencer, news organizations in Pennsylvania. In the past, Harvin held several positions at the County Times including hometown news editor, systems analyst, digital content editor and digital media manager.

Joe Hart has been named editor of the Delaware County Daily and Sunday Times and Delcotimes.com in Swarthmore, Penn. He succeeds longtime editor Phil Heron, who has retired. Hart started as summer college intern in 1983 before being hired as a full-time reporter. As a reporter, he covered the city of Chester, the Chester Upland School District and Delaware County government while also juggling breaking news and features. Over the years, Hart developed a specialty in mental health issues and politics. He moved to the copy desk in 1993 and went on to city desk five years later. He was named associate editor of the newspaper in 2004.

Nekesa Mumbi Moody has been named editorial director for The Hollywood Reporter. She succeeds Matthew Belloni, a 14-year veteran of the publication. Most recently, Moody served as global entertainment and lifestyles editor at the Associated Press. At the AP, where she had served since 2012, Moody oversaw a team of 40 journalists and directed multiformat entertainment coverage for the wire service, breaking news and exclusive content for newspapers, online portals and broadcasters. Prior to that, Moody served as the AP’S music editor from 2000 to 2012. She will relocate from New York to Los Angeles and start in the role this month.

Fran Reilly has been named executive director of the News Leaders Association.

Before joining the association, Reilly spent many years in the media and start-up space,

ranging from top director roles to advising start-ups. Most recently, she served as executive director and publisher of City

Limits News, New York City’s oldest nonprofit investigative news agency. She will be based in New York and Washington, D.C.

Mark Schoofs has been named editor-in-chief of Buzzfeed News. He will oversee a global news organization and features spanning across tech, politics, culture, investigations, science and international. He is currently a visiting professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, a role he will continue to serve. This will be Schoofs’ second stint at Buzzfeed. In 2014, he created the organization’s investigations team. Schoofs began his journalism career editing Chicago’s weekly LGBTQ newspaper, the Windy City Times.

Almar Lator has been appointed chief executive officer of Dow Jones and publisher of the Wall Street Journal, succeeding William Lewis. Lator joined the newspaper in 1997 as bureau chief and staff reporter. He was named managing editor in 2007, and in 2009, he served as editor-in-chief of the Journal and Dow Jones Newswires in Asia-pacific. From 2013 to 2015, Lator served as executive editor of the Journal, and in 2016, he served as EVP for Dow Jones and as a member of the Dow Jones Executive Committee. The same year, he was named publisher for Dow Jones Media Group and Barron’s Group. He also served as an executive at News Corp. and was previously a reporter and newspaper editor in Britain.

Rick Armon has been named editor of the Canton (Ohio) Repository and Cantonrep. com. He succeeds Rich Desrosiers, who left for a position with the Pro Football Hall of Fame. In this new role, Armon will oversee all of the Stark County newsrooms in the USA Today Network including several websites, the Massillon (Ohio) Independent and Alliance (Ohio) Review. Most recently, he served as editor of the Daily Record in Wooster, Ohio and Ashland (Ohio) Times-gazette.

Graham Brink has been named editor of editorials for the Tampa

Bay Times. He succeeds Tim Nickens who has retired after serving in the role since 2008. Brink is only the fourth person in 56 years to serve in the role. He joined the Times in 1997 as a reporting intern in local news and worked all over the bay area. After 10 years of reporting, Brink became an editor, leading the business staff and the local news staff. He has spent the past two years as the Times’ business columnist.

Jimmy Ruff, production manager at the Clanton (Ala.) Advertiser, has retired. In 1976, Ruff began his career in the mailroom and pressroom at the Selma (Ala.) Timesjournal, a sister Boone Newspapers Inc. publication. He worked his way up through the company and became press foreman, then production manager. As a retiree, Ruff will maintain his personal business helping other companies with press and printing needs and continue as an independent consultant as group production and facilities manager for Boone Newspapers.

Leana S. Wen has joined the Washington Post’s Opinion section as a contributing columnist. She will add an experienced voice on a variety of public health and health policy topics. Previously, she served as Baltimore’s health commissioner and led the nation’s oldest continuously operating health department. She has also been a clinical fellow at Harvard Medical School, founding director of Patient-centered Care Research at George Washington University and president of Planned Parenthood. Wen is a visiting professor of health policy and management at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health.