Greater Niagara Newspaper Group Publisher Fired

By: Wayne Lowman, publisher of the Greater Niagara Newspaper Group, has become the third person fired from the post in the past eight years.

Lowman, 49, was dismissed with little advance notice on Wednesday and employees at the flagship newspaper, the Niagara Gazette, said they did not know the reason.

A representative of Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. -- the Birmingham, Ala., owner of the group -- was not available early Thursday for comment and there was no word on a successor.

Lowman was named publisher in June 2003 to replace Steve Braver. A month after Lowman's appointment, CNHI eliminated 27 positions as part of a restructuring of the Greater Niagara group, which also includes the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal, the Tonawanda News and the Medina Journal-Register.

Before coming to Niagara Falls, Lowman was publisher at the Kokomo Tribune in Kokomo, Ind. He began his career as a reporter at The Evening Sun in Hanover, Pa., before becoming sports editor at The York Dispatch and York Sunday News in Pennsylvania in the 1980s. He is a former vice president of readership development for the Thomson Indiana Newspaper Group.

He said he had no immediate plans. Lowman is chairman of the executive committee of the Niagara Tourism and Convention Corp. and is on the board of the Niagara USA Chamber.