Bulletin THE
News and information for the Wisconsin newspaper industry
MARCH 2014
... among the world’s oldest press associations
WNA/AP Convention Recap
Medford’s O’Leary elected WNA president Carol O’Leary, publisher of the Star News (Medford) was elected president of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association (WNA) at the Milwaukee Marriott West during the group’s 160th annual convention, Feb. 27-28. O’Leary has served the WNA since 1998, when she began her first term on the WNA Foundation Board of Directors. She continued on the Foundation board in various capacities, including president, until 2009 when she began her first term on the WNA Board of Directors. In 2011, she became third vice president. She has served on the Inland Press Association Foundation Board and was president of the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors in 2005-06 and is a member of the National Newspaper Association. She is an owner of Central Wisconsin Publications, Inc. and publisher of The Star News and the Courier Sentinel (Cornell and Cadott). She is also the owner of Tristar Printing Co., Inc., a central printing plant in Abbotsford, which prints 10 weekly newspapers. O’Leary’s career in newspapers began in 1964 at the Times Journal in Savanna, Ill. In 1971 she and her late husband, J.A. O’Leary, purchased The Tribune-Phonograph and Record Review weekly newspapers in Abbotsford. In 1981 they started The Central Wisconsin Shopper and in 1986 they purchased The Star News and Shopper in Medford. After her husband’s death in 1997, daughter Kris O’Leary (WNA Foundation president) and her husband Kevin Flink joined the organization. Together they purchased the Tribune Record Gleaner in Loyal in 2010 and the Courier Sentinel in 2012. A native of Savanna, Ill. she has been active in her communities, including serving two terms as president of the Abbotsford Chamber of Commerce and on the fund raising committee to build a new city hall/library and public safety buildings in that community and a hospital expansion in Medford. She is treasurer of the Medford Friends of the Downtown and serves on the Medford Library Foundation board. For about 35 years she has been active in the Abbotsford Christmas parade, making and repairing hundreds of costumes and received a community service award from the Abbotsford Chamber of Commerce in 2005. O’Leary succeeds Kent Eymann, publisher of the Beloit Daily News. Eymann, who has been with the Daily News since 1992, becomes immediate past president. Chris Hardie, editor of the La Crosse Tribune and publisher of the Coulee News in West Salem and other weeklies in the River Valley Newspaper Group (La Crosse) was elected first vice president; Brian Thomsen, publisher of the Valders Journal, was elected second vice president; Genia Lovett, publisher of the The Post-Crescent (Appleton) was elected third vice president. John Ingebritsen, publisher of the Platteville Journal and additional southwest Wisconsin weeklies within the Morris Newspapers group, was elected secretary while Mike Beck, Wausau Daily Herald publisher, was elected board treasurer. The WNA Board of Directors also welcomed three new board members: • Steve Lyles, group publisher, Journal Community Publishing Group; • Pat Reilly, publisher of the Dodgeville Chronicle; and • David Thornberry, publisher of The Daily Press (Ashland). Lyles is group publisher of Journal Community Publishing Group and also director of community sales for Journal Publishing. He manages four publishing entities at Journal
Community Publishing Group Community Newspapers, Lake Country Publications, Mukwonago Publications and Jefferson Living as well as MetroParent Magazine. Combined, the operations produce 17 weekly publications, three monthly lifestyle magazines and corresponding digital media. Reilly will return to the WNA Board of Directors, having served the Foundation’s board since 2009. He has long served WNA in a variety Steve Lyles of capacities, including six years on the association board, from 2003 to 2009. He has also served on the WNA Partners (educational outreach) committee and for many years has faithfully volunteered to judge entries in the professional, collegiate and high school Better Newspaper Contests. Thornberry serves as regional operations and sales director of American Consolidated Media, a post he has held since August of 2012. He has also worked as a multimedia sales manager for GateHouse MediaMultia; a consultant for EBase E2 Marketing Pat Reilly Solutions in Indianapolis; president, Target Media (a Denver newspaper agency); and was a publisher at several Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. newspapers (including the Ottumwa Courier, Commonwealth Journal and Tribune Star). Thornberry served on the Kentucky Press Association Board of Directors from 1999 to 2004. WNA Foundation Kris O’Leary, was re-elected WNAF president. Godfrey and David Thornberry Kahn Attorney James Friedman was re-elected vice president, and George Althoff, communications director for the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions, was re-elected secretary-treasurer. Mark Stodder, principal of Watson Campbell, LLC (Milwaukee), was named to the WNA Foundation Board. Stodder is the former executive vice president of Dolan Media Company, which owns The Daily Reporter in Milwaukee and business and law newspapers and digital information platforms in 20 U.S. markets. Prior to taking on leadership of Dolan’s publishing operations, Stodder served as publisher of The Daily Reporter. He left Dolan in 2013 to run his own business consulting firm, Watson Campbell LLC, which provides strategic and operational support to publishing and other information businesses around the country. He also serves on the board of directors of BringMeTheNews.com and the Detroit Legal News Publishing Co.
Carol O’Leary, left, accepts the WNA president’s gavel from outgoing president Kent Eymann at the 2014 WNA/AP Annual Convention and Trade Show held Feb. 27-28 in Waukesha.
Stodder served as the WNA’s Legislative Committee chair for more than a decade, and recently stepped down from service on the National Newspaper Association’s board of directors, a post he held since 2005. He is the former president of American Court & Commercial Newspapers and founded and led the Public Notice Resource Center. He is the former chair of the Student Press Law Center and currently serves as its development committee chair. Mark Stodder Primary foundation goals include public education on First Amendment issues, and support of high school and collegiate journalism education. WNA Services, Inc. Board The five-member WNA Services board of Directors. WNA Services, Inc., is a wholly owned for-profit subsidiary of WNA. Members for 2014 include: • Unified Newspaper Group (Verona) General Manager Lee Borkowski • Courier Press (Prairie du Chien) General Manager Gary Howe • Beloit Daily News Publisher Kent Eymann • Valders Journal Publisher Brian Thomsen • WNA Executive Director Beth Bennett
For many, service to WNA is in their blood
Editor’s note: With a mother and daughter team presiding over the Wisconsin Newspaper Association and its Foundation, it didn’t take long for WNA staff to begin muddling — more accurately melding — their leaders’ names.
Shortly into the 2014 convention Carol (shown at left) and Kris (on the right) had our tongues tied. When referring to them together, we were often tripped up, stammering out a “Krisl” or “Caris.” While WNA has had several father-and-son duos
serving as presidents, the O’Learys have become the first-ever mother and daughter team. It is also believed they are the first family to hold the president’s posts simultaneously. Past father-and-son WNA Presidents include: Charles Graaskamp (1997) and
Peter Graaskamp (2011); Doug Lyke (1980) and Tim Lyke (2006); Palmer Sondreal (1988) and Palmer Sondreal Sr. (1956). Audrey Lyke (Doug’s wife and Tim’s mother) served as WNAF President (1995). There are several families
who have served in a director capacity on both boards over the years, including the Branens (Burlington); Tobins (Tomahawk) and Woods (Green Bay).