Black Press announces new Publisher for Northern View

 

Black Press  has announced its choice for the next Publisher
of the Northern View

A focus on financials over journalism may be the takeaway for some today from a staffing announcement at the local newspaper.  

That as the Black Press Group reveals that that Melissa Ash will take over the top position at the Prince Rupert Northern View.

The announcement which was made by Mary Kemmis, the newly put in place Vice President of BC North Division, was released Monday morning and makes makes note of Ms. Ash's evolution at the paper: from receptionist to circulation, before she took on the duties of sales and office management.

Among the key area of focus for the announcement is a salute for her work and an award for her marketing campaign for the newspapers annual Fishing Derby, while also gaining significant mention is her work as a fundraiser for local School PAC's over the years. 

She will take over the publishing duties from Todd Hamilton, who slipped off into the journalism mist last year around the same time as the new Northern VP arrived, the long time publisher taking his leave seemingly without even the usual traditional farewells.

It's a curious choice to hand over the overall managing of the paper to someone outside of the journalism field, though not unknown from the past and it seems to be a growing trend for the industry. 

But it's a decision which surely sends a bit of a message as to where the Black Press priorities for their local product may be at the moment.

The weekly paper currently has two journalists on staff, KJ Millar who has been with the paper for a couple of years now and Norman Galimski who was hired on in August of last year as part of the Journalism initiative program.

More notes on media in the Northwest can be explored from our archive page.