Member News

Rachel Brands has joined the staff at Beloit Daily News as a general assignment reporter, the newspaper reports. In her new role, Brands will cover education, features and general news.

A native of Lake in the Hills, Ill., Brands graduated in 2019 from Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, with a double major in creative writing and English literature. Before joining the Daily News, she worked as a freelance writer.

Tony Ends, who has served as editor of The (Brodhead) Independent-Register since May, is stepping aside from the role, he announced in a column welcoming new editor Robin Orvino.

It's the fifth time that Ends, who works full-time as a writer and editor for the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, has served as editor of the newspaper since 2015. He wrote that he hopes to continue writing for The Independent-Register on an occasional basis, he wrote.

Taima Kern, who has worked for the USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin for more than 11 years, has been named editor of The Post-Crescent. Kern succeeds Larry Gallup, who served as editor of The Post-Crescent since 2021 and now works as an audience growth editor for USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin.

Kern joined the network in 2011 as assistant editor for the Action Publications in Fond du Lac County. She became site editor of the Fond du Lac Reporter and the network's nine nondaily publications in 2016. She's a 2011 graduate of Ripon College.

Peter Frank, who has worked at the Green Bay Press-Gazette for the last 23 years, has been named editor of the newspaper. Frank, who most recently oversaw coverage of breaking and trending news in Green Bay and other sites in the USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin, will also lead a regional team focused on government, public safety and courts.

Frank succeeds Mark Treinen, who served as news director since March 2019 and recently was named editor of The (Madison) Capital Times.

Meggan Meisegeier, who recently graduated from UW-Superior with a bachelor’s degree in writing, has been named assistant editor of The Ladysmith News.

In her new role, she will cover local law enforcement and court news, dispatch reports, board meetings, Bruce and Flambeau School news, and various festivals and events.

After a 15-year journalism career, Lake Geneva Regional News editor Stephanie Jones is leaving the field to become a teacher, she announced in a column Wednesday.

A 2007 graduate from UW-Milwaukee, Jones interned at the Green Bay Press-Gazette before joining The (Racine) Journal Times as a reporter. She was named managing editor of the Times in 2016 and became editor of its sister paper, the Regional News, in 2020. She also served as a member of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial board's first reader advisory committee.

Travis Devlin, who has served as a sports reporter for the Lake Geneva Regional News since October 2021, has been named the newspaper’s local news editor. His appointment follows the resignation of Regional News editor Stephanie Jones.

A 2018 graduate of Bowling Green State University, Devlin previously worked as a sports reporter for the Athens (Alabama) News Courier, the Sidney (Montana) Herald and The BG News in Bowling Green, Ohio.

Jim Fitzhenry, former Vice President of News for USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin, has been named editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Ideas Lab, the newspaper has announced. He'll also lead the organization's statewide editorial board and serve as the director of community engagement for the Journal Sentinel and the 10 other Gannett newspapers in Wisconsin.

Fitzhenry succeeds David Haynes, who retired on Dec. 15 after more than four decades in journalism.

Hannah Alden, a Waukesha native who previously worked as a reporter and editor for the former Hometown News Group in the greater Madison area, has been named editor of The (Edgar) Record-Review, the newspaper announced on Dec. 14.

Alden earned her bachelor's degree in journalism from Columbia College Chicago in 2015 before joining the Lodi Enterprise and Poynette Press as a reporter the following year. She was later named managing editor of the DeForest Times-Tribune — a role she held for nearly two years before leaving to start a career in organic agriculture. Alden succeeds Peter Weinschenk, who retired as editor in October after more than 40 years with the newspaper.

After a journalism career spanning more than four decades — nearly a third of which was spent at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel — David Haynes has retired, the longtime editor announced in a column published Dec. 15, his last day.

During his tenure, he has served as education editor, enterprise editor, business editor, opinion editor, founder and editor of Ideas Lab, and community engagement coordinator. In his farewell column, Haynes looked back on his career, reflected on the threats facing local journalism, encouraged readers to support newspapers and lauded his colleagues.