Smitherman Takes Helm at Two N.C. Dailies

Posted Monday, August 4, 2008 12:00 am

By: E&P Staff Lamar Smitherman has been named the publisher of The News-Herald in Morganton, N.C., and The McDowell News in Marion, N.C.

Smitherman will oversee the operations of both newspapers, and will also share in the supervision of SuperBuzz, a weekly Web/print entertainment production with the Hickory (N.C.) Daily Record.

Smitherman was previously the advertising director of the daily, 15,000-circulation Opelika-Auburn (Ala.) News, a position he'd held since 2005. Prior to that, he was publisher of the Easley Progress and the Powdersville Post in Easley, S.C.

An Alabama native, Smitherman has also served as publisher of The Prattville (Ala.) Progress and was part-owner of the Clarke County Tribune in Mississippi. He has also launched a 12,000-circulation, free-distribution weekly, the Autuga Times of Prattville, and owned ColorBox Press, a commercial printing business in Montgomery.

Smitherman succeeds Eric Millsaps, who earlier this summer became publisher of the Hickory Daily Record. ?I am extremely excited about moving to North Carolina and becoming part of the Morganton and Marion communities,? Smitherman told The McDowell News. ?Both papers have a strong history of local community coverage. It is my intent to see that tradition continue.?

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Smitherman Takes Helm at Two N.C. Dailies

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