InkBlots

Like many other papers in the Emmerich Newspaper group, the Northside Sun is making the move to Berliner tabloid format, approximately 11 inches in width by 16 inches in heighth. Publisher Wyatt Emmerich announced the change in his column this week.

Other Emmerich-owned papers that have already made the transition include the Charleston Sun-Sentinel, Forest Scott County Times and Lamar Times and Petal News in Hattiesburg.

Bill Gilmore has joined The Meridian Star as director of advertising. He previously was ad director for the TimesDaily in Florence, AL…Vicksburg native Paul Bryant has been named editor of The Statesmen in Brownsboro, Texas…Dustin Barnes recently joined the Daily Times Leader in West Point as a staff reporter.

Steve Stewart, publisher of the Franklin, Va. Tidewater News, has been named vice president of Boone Newspapers Inc., with responsibility for the company’s affiliate newspapers in Virginia and North Carolina. He is formerly publisher of The Clarksdale Press-Register and former editor of The Meridian Star.

A power struggle between the mayor and a majority of the governing board has left this southwest Mississippi city of 13,000 without a permanent police chief, fire chief, city attorney, city administrator and city clerk.

The two-year battle of wills between Mayor Zach Patterson and four members of the six-man Board of Selectmen raises questions about the city’s ability to function, especially as a budget deadline looms.

“He had great promise,” Jack Ryan, editor and publisher of The Enterprise-Journal, said of Patterson.

In an interview, Patterson accused the paper of “fanning the flames of racism.”

Editor and Publisher has picked up on a story of a letter of solicitation sent from The Clarion-Ledger to Lowndes County residents which erroneously states that the local paper in Columbus would be switching from paid-daily to free-weekly distribution.

The Commercial Dispatch first reported the story in its own pages Wednesday.

UPDATE: Clarion-Ledger publisher Larry Whitaker sent a letter to the editor appearing in Monday’s Dispatch.

Ricky Mathews, whose 27-year career at the Sun Herald has spanned a range of duties from intern to President and Publisher, announced Tuesday that he will be leaving the newspaper in early August to assume a new position outside the McClatchy Company.

Lincoln County Board of Supervisors President the Rev. Jerry Wilson said he has been “beat up” by the press amid criticism of his leadership and handling of the situation surrounding a state agency’s lease on a county-owned building.

As supervisors prepared to reject a request from the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks and effectively end a months-long fight over the future of the agency’s Brookhaven-headquartered District Five office, board members each took their chance to speak their final piece on the issue. Wilson proclaimed his support for keeping the office in Brookhaven and then let loose a tirade, in which he invoked crucifixion, against The Daily Leader.

Sun Herald publisher Ricky Mathews told attendees at an insurance conference this week he accepts the need to work with private insurers, but said he’s frustrated by evidence that companies have tried to gear claims handling to minimize payouts to policyholders.

According to The Memphis Newspaper Guild, The Commercial Appeal may outsource to another printer next year, ending jobs in the 192,631-circulation (229,441 Sundays) daily’s pressroom.

Citing a letter form management to the pressmen’s union, Newspaper Guild President Daniel Connolly notified members that the E.W. Scripps paper recently informed the union that it is “considering outsourcing its print operations to a yet-to-be-built facility in Tupelo, Miss.” Connolly said a significant but unknown number of jobs could be lost to outsourcing.

Journal Publishing Company made its pitch to the Memphis newspaper executives as the CA is weighing options of either rebuilding its existing printing equipment or buying a new press. The cost of rebuilding the press or folders and units ranges from $23 million to $26 million. And a new press would cost $40 million, according to Tomb.