'Hattiesburg American' Shakes Up its Newsroom

By: The Hattiesburg American has shuffled its newsroom, turning day-to-day news management over to Managing Editor Dan Davis and eliminating the job of executive editor, held by Kathleen Williams.

The announcement was made in yesterday's editions by newspaper general manager Tracie Fowler. Fowler took over operations of the newspaper in January.

Williams had been at the newspaper for four years, coming over from the Tampa Tribune, where she had been a city editor.

Fowler said doing away with the executive editor post was a business decision.

Fowler said managing editor's responsibilities are more closely aligned with the newspaper's core mission of developing local content for the newspaper's print and Web products.

The newsroom restructuring came on the heels of changes to Hattiesburg's production operation, which was moved in January to Jackson.