Dominick Cross has been named editor of the Delta Democrat Times in Greenville. Cross most recently was a music columnist for The Advocate in Baton Rouge, La. Before that, he was editor of the Crowley (La.) Post-Signal.
The Newton Record is closing after 107 years of providing news from Newton and surrounding Newton County. The newspaper will publish its last edition on Wednesday, Jan. 14.
Publisher and Editor Robbie Robertson broke the news to the Record’s staff today. The weekly newspaper’s four employees will work their last day Jan. 14.
The weekly community newspaper has been in publication since 1901. Once publication of the Record stops, subscribers to the paper will begin receiving the Sunday edition of The Meridian Star. That move would increase Sunday circulation of The Star to approximately 23,000.
Skippy Haik, publisher of the Hattiesburg American — who garnered praise for living in her office for 12 straight days following Hurricane Katrina in an effort to keep the paper going — is leaving the Gannett Co. daily, the paper announced Thursday.
Haik, who is a member of the MPA board of directors, will not be replaced. Traci Fowler, director of advertising for the Hattiesburg daily, will assume management responsibilities in the newly created role of general manager.
The elimination of the publisher’s job comes one month after Gannett announced it was cutting nearly 40 jobs at the Hattiesburg paper and shifting production of it and regional printing of the USA Today to The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson.
Haik joined the MPA board in 2007. She previously worked for Gannett in Jackon and at the Monroe Star in Louisiana. In 2006, she was named Gannett’s Publisher of the Year for her leadership at the newspaper in aftermath of Katrina’s landfall. She’s a Jones County native and actively involved in community affairs, serving this year as president of the local United Way.
Ralph Williams Sr., a longtime business executive with The Mississippi Press in Pascagoula, died Sunday at his home at the age of 71.
Williams, a native of St. Elmo and a resident of Grand Bay for the past 48 years, retired in 1994 after 37 years with the Mississippi Press and Press-Register in Mobile.
He began his career in the advertising service department of the Press-Register. In 1970, he became the advertising/marketing director of The Mississippi Press and in 1990 was promoted to business manager, a position he held until retiring four years later.
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