Publisher announces retirement plans
Porterville Recorder Publisher/ Editor Rick Elkins will retire at the end of August, he announced.
Elkins has served as publisher of The Recorder since May of 2013.
His replacement has not been announced.
When he steps down on Aug. 25, Elkins will have worked for The Recorder a combined 22 years, 19 years as editor and just over four years as publisher.
He began working in newspapers in 1976 as a reporter for the Dinuba Sentinel. After five years there, he became editor of the weekly Lemoore Leader before coming to Porterville as managing editor in October of 1983.
He followed Bob Moyle as editor when he retired in 1986.
Elkins left The Recorder in 1998 to become editor of the Tulare Advance-register. He briefly worked for the Visalia Times-delta before taking a break from newspapers to work as the public relations officer for Tulare Local Healthcare District in 2004.
He then became publisher of the Valley Voice weekly in 2007 and remained there until returning to The Recorder in October of 2010.
“It has been a very rewarding and often, interesting career,” he said. “I have met
some very outstanding and interesting people during my career and have worked with some of the best journalists around.”
He said he has had this year in mind for retirement for quite some
time and it just feels right to step aside now.
As to what he will do in the future, he said he is leaving his options open, but has a long list of “to do” items and wants to do some traveling as well.