Richard (Dick) Morris, vice president & general manager of the Bowling Green Sentinel Tribune, has been elected president of The Ohio Newspaper Association. The election took place at the board of trustees meeting held during ONA’s 2010 convention last week at the Columbus Hilton. Morris succeeds H. Kenneth (Ken) Douthit, president of Douthit Communications, who completed his two-year term as ONA president.
Elected as vice president of ONA and president of The Ohio Newspapers Foundation was David Dix, publisher of the Kent/Ravenna Record Courier. Del Varney, vice president of operations for The Columbus Dispatch, was elected treasurer. All are two-year terms ending in February 2012. Frank Deaner continues as executive director and secretary to the board.
At the ONA Annual Meeting on Feb. 11, Jerry Mossbarger, publisher of The Telegram, Jackson, OH, was elected to ONA’s board of trustees. He will serve a three-year term representing weekly newspapers. He succeeds Douthit, who has retired from the board. Dix was re-elected to a three-year term on the board, representing daily newspapers of 10,000 to 50,000 circulation.
Also re-elected to the board for three-year terms ending in February 2013 were Brian Cooper, senior vice president of operations, Cox Ohio Media Group, and Andrea Mathewson, publisher of The Akron Beacon Journal, representing daily newspapers over 50,000 circulation; Scott Gove, publisher of The Shelby Daily Globe, representing daily newspapers under 10,000 circulation, and Keith Rathbun, publisher of The Budget, Sugarcreek, representing weekly newspapers.
As a newly-elected officer, Varney joins the Executive Committee of the ONA board. He has been a trustee since 2007. Varney has also served on the Convention Committee for the past three years and was chairman of the 2010 convention.
Mossbarger joins the ONA board following two years on the ONA Weekly Newspaper Committee. Since 2002, he has been the chief operating officer for Jackson County Broadcasting, Inc. In that position he serves as publisher of The Telegram and as general manager for WKOV-FM, WCJO-FM, WYRO-FM and WYPC-AM.
Mossbarger received his Bachelor’s degree from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1973 and his Masters in Business Administration from The Ohio State University in 1981. He was on active duty with the U.S. Army from 1973 to 1979 and retired from the U.S. Army Reserve as a Lieutenant Colonel after 23 years of service.
A native of Jackson, Mossbarger’s business career includes corporate positions with National City Bank, MasterCard International, AT & T, NCR and Harris Corporation in several cities including Dallas, Los Angeles, Dayton, San Francisco and New York.
Mossbarger’s current civic activities include the board of the Jenkins Memorial Health Facility and the Jackson County Economic Development Board.
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