Kris O’Leary elected president of Wisconsin Newspaper Association
Kris O’Leary, publisher of The Star News, has been elected president of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association.
O’Leary succeeds George Stanley, currently CEO of Wisconsin Watch and former longtime Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editor, who becomes immediate past president.
Stanley passed the gavel to O’Leary during the WNA Board of Directors meeting on Thursday, March 14, in Madison. The appointment became official during the association’s annual meeting the next day — following a motion made by her mother, Carol O’Leary, co-publisher of The Star News, Medford, and seconded by her husband, Kevin Flink, co-publisher of TP Printing.
“People still want local news. What we do matters to our communities,” O’Leary said to an audience of nearly 200 members during the annual Better Newspaper Contest Awards Banquet. “Being a watchdog for local government. Being a cheerleader for community events. Letting people share their opinions. Strong local editorials to encourage community or government action.
“The people in this room get it. You understand the assignment. We need to get the message out that newspapers aren’t dying, they are changing and evolving from print, to online, to nonprofit. But newspapers are still one of our most valuable community resources. And the people in this room who investigate, cover meetings, write features, shoot sports, design ads and pages and print the papers are the heart and soul of those pages.”
In addition to The Star News Kris O’Leary is publisher of the Tribune-Phonograph which covers the Abbotsford and Colby areas, the Courier Sentinel which covers Cornell, Lake Holcombe and Cadott, the Record-Review which covers communities in Western Marathon County, and the Tribune Record Gleaner which cover the communities of Loyal, Greenwood, Granton and Spencer.
Other newly elected WNA officers include: Jeff Patterson, president of APG Central Division, first vice president; Greg Mellis, publisher of the Shawano Leader, second vice president; Dave Wood, Director of Operations at New London Press Star, secretary/treasurer.
WNAboarddirectorsinclude:GregBorowski,Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; David Eliot, Peninsula Pulse, Baileys Harbor; John Ingebritsen, Morris Newspapers, Lancaster; Kelly Lecker, Wisconsin State Journal, Madison; Richard Lee, Inter-County Cooperative Publishing; Mark Lewis, The Gazette, Janesville; Patrick Wood, Multi Media Channels, Green Bay; and Joe Yovino, The Daily Reporter, Milwaukee.
