MPA/MPS e-Bulletin

Photos from the 2008 MPA Summer Convention are now available for download.

James R. “Randy” Ponder, publisher of the Sea Coast Echo in Bay St. Louis, has been elected president of the Mississippi Press Association and Mississippi Press Services for 2008-09. He was installed as the new leader of the organizations at the annual President’s Banquet in Biloxi on Friday during MPA’s 142nd Annual Convention.

Ponder accepted the gavel from outgoing president Tom Andrews, publisher of The Picayune Item, who becomes immediate past president and Chairman of the MPA Education Foundation.

Ponder began his newspaper career in 1970 at the Daily Mountain Eagle in Jasper, Ala. He moved to Bay St. Louis in 1972 and was named General Manager in 1983. From 1987-1990, Ponder was the editor and publisher of the Mobile County News in south Alabama.

He returned to Bay St. Louis and later assumed his current roles. He is a past president of the Bay St. Louis Rotary Club, a board member of the Hancock County Chamber of Commerce, and is involved with many business and civic organizations.

A native of Cedartown, Ga., Ponder and his wife , Sherry, live in Waveland. They are the parents three children, Ashley, Jace, and Patrick.

In his acceptance speech Friday evening, Ponder said the longevity of the newspaper business will carry it through tough times and long into the future. “Nobody does what you do,” he told a room full of MPA members, journalists and educators. “Nobody can do it.”

Ponder also said he was grateful for long-term relationships through the years, including the support of his wife and that of Echo publisher-emeritus Ellis Cuevas, an MPA Hall of Fame member, and retired MPA executive director Carolyn Wilson.

Other board members serving on the MPA Executive Committee for the coming year include Vice-President for Dailies Reece Terry, publisher of the Daily Corinthian; Vice-President for Weeklies Wyatt Emmerich, publisher of the Jackson Northside Sun; and Treasurer Jimmy Clark, general manager of the Vicksburg Post.

Elected to a three-year term on the board was Mark Williams, publisher of the Bolivar Commercial. Charlotte Wolfe, Associate Publisher for Journal Publishing Company, was renominated for her second three-year term.

For its 40 years of community leadership, especially on civil rights and reconciliation, The Neshoba Democrat is this year’s winner of the Tom and Pat Gish Award for courage, integrity and tenacity in rural journalism from the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues.

The Institute established the award to honor the couple who have published The Mountain Eagle in Whitesburg, Ky., for more than 51 years. The Gishes were the first recipients of the award.

The award was presented by Al Cross, executive director of the Institute for Rural Journalism, during the MPA President’s Banquet last Friday in Biloxi. It was accepted by Stanley Dearman (above), longtime Democrat publisher and owner, and his successor, James E. Prince.

All winners in the 2007 Better Newspaper Contest – Editorial Division have been posted to the MPA Website and are available for download.

Congratulations to The Clarion-Ledger, The Natchez Democrat, The Greenwood Commonwealth, The Madison County Journal, The Banner Independent and the Deer Creek Pilot for capturing first place in the category of General Excellence for their respective circulation divisions.

William Colgin, photographer for The Sun-Herald, was awarded the Aimee Block Herscovici Photo of the Year prize for his photograph of Trent Lott’s resignation announcement.

Emily Le Coz of the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal was the recipient of the Bill Minor Prize for General News Reporting and Jerry Mitchell of The Clarion-Ledger was the winner of the Bill Minor Prize for Investigative Reporting.

From Editor and Publisher: Gannett Co. Inc. said Friday it is reorganizing its U.S. Community Publishing division, reducing the number of regional groups by one to four and seeing off two retiring top executives. Under the new structure, five regional groups have been reorganized into four: East, South, Interstate and West.

Mike Jacobs writes in the Grand Forks (ND) Herald: “To be sure, this is a tough time for newspapers, but the idea of the newspaper is so powerful that the business will survive. Not only that, I think the newspaper model is likely to win the ongoing Web wars, and that business will flourish.”

From editorsweblog: With tough times for the newspaper industry - today alone, the Baltimore Sun announced it will cut about 100 jobs, Palm Beach Newspapers Inc., which owns both The Palm Beach Post and the Palm Beach Daily News, plans to cut 300 workers from its 1,350-person payroll, and The Hartford (Conn.) Courant announced they will be cutting both news pages and staff positions by 25% - more and more journalists are making the move to public relations.