Dardarian of 'Seattle Times' Gets Top APME Post

By: Suki Dardarian, deputy managing editor of The Seattle Times, was elected president of the Associated Press Managing Editors Association.

Her election came near the conclusion of the group's annual conference here. Having served the past year as vice president, she succeeds Deanna Sands, managing editor of the Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald.

Karen Magnuson, editor and vice president-news of the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle, was elected vice president. David Ledford, executive editor of The News Journal in Wilmington, Del., was elected secretary while Bobbie Jo Buel, executive editor of the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson, Ariz., advanced to chairman of the Journalism Today committees. A new committees' vice chairman will be selected during the APME board of directors meeting in January.

Karen Peterson, managing editor of The News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash., was elected treasurer.

In elections for the APME board of directors, three incumbents were re-elected and a former director was returned to the board. They will be joined by five newcomers.

Re-elected to three-year terms were Rosemary Goudreau, editorial page editor of The Tampa Tribune, and Jennifer Houtman, managing editor of The Marietta (Ohio) Times. Donna Reed, vice president for news of Media General Inc. in Richmond, Va., was returned to the board for a two-year term.

Former director Everett Mitchell, editor and vice president of The Tennessean in Nashville, was elected to a three-year term.

Also elected to three-year terms were Tom Eblen, managing editor, the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader, Hank Klibanoff, managing editor, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Hollis Towns, managing editor, The Cincinnati Enquirer. Joe Garcia, editor of The Daily Times in Farmington, N.M., was elected to a three-year term representing newspapers of under 35,000 daily circulation. Jon Fortt, senior Web editor of the San Jose Mercury News, was elected to a three-year term as online representative.

At the board's meeting earlier in the week, Calvin Stovall, executive editor of the Press & Sun-Bulletin in Binghamton, N.Y., was elected one of two association representatives to the Associated Press Managing Editors Association Foundation, which receives charitable donations and supports journalism education programs.

APME is an organization of editors and managing editors of the more than 1,500 newspapers served by the AP. Founded in 1933, it is based at AP headquarters in New York.