Friday, July 31, 2009

John Hacker named Carthage Press managing editor

Sources tell me that today's Carthage Press will include an announcement that John Hacker is the new managing editor.

Hacker, from my understanding, will have something of the same arrangement I had when I held that position. He will be a reporting editor, making the decisions and directing news coverage, but leaving most of the page pushing to other staff members.

Hacker is in his third stint with The Press. He worked for me in 1995 while he was attending Missouri Southern State College, and then returned to the newspaper from August 1998 to May 1999, and again after GateHouse Media shut down the Joplin Daily two years ago.

In between, Hacker's journalism experiences have included a job with a Baxter Springs newspaper, two turns with the Joplin Globe, and news director at 1310 KBTN when it was attempting to be an all-news station.

The promotion of Hacker should come as welcome news to Press readers who have been waiting since the firing of Ron Graber for a sign that GateHouse takes the news management of The Carthage Press seriously.

8 comments:

Verbatim said...

Let's hope that Hacker has more success in this new role than he did with Joplin Daily. Hopefully the Carthage Press won't shut down under his watch.

Anonymous said...

The failing of Joplindaily.com had absolutely *nothing* to do with John Hacker. If anything, it was his hard work and dedication that kept it above water for as long as it did...

At the helm of the ship said...

The captain of the Titanic also said that he had absolutely "nothing" to do with the sinking of his ship.

Anonymous said...

So mr.helm, you like falsly attributing fictional statements to historical characters and you think you have inside knowledge about joplindaily.com. Be specific here. How precisely did hacker drive that publication into an iceberg?Tell us all. What were his mistakes so we can avoid them? We await your prescient words.

Anonymous said...

Word: To succeed, do whatever Gloria wants. Even if it means losing a community's identity.

Anonymous said...

Hacker's only mistake regarding the Joplin Daily was to take the pay cut and leave the Globe to join up with a project with such a miserable strategy in the first place. (Who was in charge of that thing anyway? Nick? Rodney? Rick? Chip?) I'd surmise that it's that lesson about Gatehouse's upper management that left him so hesitant to take on the leadership role at the Carthage Press.

Anonymous said...

In response to "At the helm of the ship," E.J. Smith went down with the Titanic.

Anonymous said...

Indeed, 10:44, his bones rest at the bottom of the Atlantic along with John Jacob Astor's and hundreds of others.