By: E&P and The Associated Press Bobbie Jo Buel, executive editor of the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson, has been elected president of the Associated Press Managing Editors Association.
Buel will serve a one-year term ending with the 2009 APME annual conference Oct. 28-30 in St. Louis. She succeeds David Ledford, executive editor of The News Journal in Wilmington, Del.
During its annual convention which concluded Thursday, the
association of editors at AP's 1,500 member newspapers in the U.S. and newspapers served by the Canadian Press in Canada also elected the following officers: Otis Sanford, editor of opinion and editorials of The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn., vice president; Hollis Towns, executive editor of the Cincinnati Enquirer, secretary, and Joseph Garcia, viewpoints and aztalk editor of The Arizona Republic in
Phoenix, chairman of the Journalism Today committees.
Members elected these representatives to three-year terms on the
association's governing board: Debra Adams Simmons, managing editor of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland; Kurt Franck, managing editor of The Blade, Toledo, Ohio; Randy Lovely, editor and vice president/news, The Arizona Republic; Martin Reynolds, editor, The Oakland Tribune and assistant managing editor/news of the Bay Area News Group; Michael Days, editor, Philadelphia Daily News; David Bailey, managing editor, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Brad Dennison, vice president of news operations of Gatehouse Media in Fairport, N.Y., and Alan D. Miller, managing editor/news of The Columbus Dispatch, were elected to two-year terms.
Kathleen Williams, executive editor of the Hattiesburg (Miss.)
American, was elected to a three-year term representing newspapers
under 35,000 circulation. In an election for online editors, Kathy
Best, managing editor-digital news and innovation of The Seattle Times, was elected to a three-term term while Jack Lail, managing
editor-multimedia of the Knoxville (Tenn.) News Sentinel, was elected
to fill a one-year unexpired term.
Members also voted to reduce the size of the board from 24 directors to
20 by the year 2011 and to eliminate the officer position of vice
chairman of Journalism Today committees. Buel explained that with six
officers, a past president and two ex-officio members, the current
board composition is viewed by some as too large, especially as editors
have a harder time traveling to attend board meetings. Reducing the
number of directors and officers will bring the association's board
closer to those of other journalism organizations, Buel said.
The bylaws amendment also clarifies that the immediate past president
is a voting member of the board, gives the board authority to fill
vacancies until the next regular election when appointees must run for
re-election and eliminates the positions of regional liaison and small
newspaper representative.
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