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02/16/2018

Nieporte named president of ONMA Board of Trustees; new trustees named

Monica NieportePhoto: Monica Nieporte

The Ohio News Media Association has named new officers for 2018-19, led by Monica Nieporte, publisher of the Athens Messenger and president of APG Media of Ohio.

Nieporte, who becomes ONMA’s first female board president, replaces outgoing president Bill Southern of The Toledo Blade and Block Communications. Southern remains on the board for one year in an ex officio capacity.

Ron Waite, publisher of the Sandusky Register, will be the board’s vice president and president of the Ohio News Media Foundation, and Lori Figurski, regional advertising director for Ogden Newspapers in Martins Ferry, will serve as treasurer. Waite will be on the track to become board president in 2020. Bruce Winges of the Akron Beacon Journal remains as a member of the ONMA Executive Committee. ONMA Executive Director Dennis Hetzel serves as secretary to the board.

Nieporte is the president of APG Media of Ohio, based in Athens, OH and oversees operations of the Athens Messenger, Athens News, Jackson County Times Journal, Vinton County Courier, Pike County News Watchman, Perry County Tribune, Logan Daily News, Circleville Herald in southern Ohio; The Crescent-News in Defiance, Ohio and Gladwin County Record and Clarion in Gladwin, Mich.

She is a graduate of Ohio University's E.W. Scripps School of Journalism.

 “I am honored to serve as the association’s president during this challenging and exciting period of change in our industry. It’s heartening to see so much innovation out there on the part of our members to identify new revenue streams and sustain the traditional products that generations of readers have always cherished. The executive team will continue to look for ways we can support those efforts and to be an important resource for our members,” Nieporte said.

Southern became board president unexpectedly in 2016 following the death of Keith Rathbun, publisher of The Budget in Sugarcreek, only weeks before Rathbun was supposed to become president. In thanking Southern for his service, trustees presented him with two sports-related gifts related to his background – a Kansas University shirt and a framed keepsake of Chicago Cubs World Series tickets (with apologies to Indians fans).

At the annual meeting of ONMA members during the convention, the following incumbent trustees were elected to new, three-year terms, along with Nieporte and Figurski:

Incumbent trustees for new, three-year terms:

  • John Karlovec, Geauga County Maple Leaf
  • George Rodrigue, Cleveland Plain Dealer
  • Cheryl Vespoint, Barberton Herald

 ONMA members also selected two new trustees to replace Southern and Deb Zwez of the Wapakoneta Daily News. They are:

  • Kurt Franck, The Blade, Toledo
  • Jamie Beacom, Ashtabula Star- Beacon

In her address to ONMA members, Nieporte urged members to volunteer for board committees or to join the board of trustees. She noted that the board will face two unusual tasks this year. First, the board will undertake a full examination of how dues are calculated to possibly move to a model that also takes digital audiences into account.  Secondly, the board will begin a search for a new executive director in the second half of the year in anticipation of Hetzel’s anticipated retirement in the spring of 2019.

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