Member News

The Board of Directors of the Washington Island Observer has reorganized its Editorial Staff to better meet the needs of its audiences and to continue publishing a community newspaper that is “All About the Island.

Liz Welter, former reporter for the Door County Advocate, has been named Executive Editor of the Washington Island Observer. Emily Small, assistant editor for the Washington Island Observer, has been named associate editor. Tina Gohr has been named assistant editor for culture.

The Peninsula Pulse is growing, and local owners David Eliot and Myles Dannhausen Jr. have hired two new reporters.

Veteran journalist Kevin Boneske joins the newspaper as a reporter. The Sturgeon Bay native will cover local schools. Sam Watson will join the staff of the Pulse following her graduation this month from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication. 

Madeline Westberg, has been named lead editor of the Adams Publishing Group’s Hometown News division, where she currently serves as associate editor. Westberg succeeds Karyn Seeman who has been named managing editor of the Janesville Gazette.

As a lead editor, Westberg will direct news coverage for Cambridge, Deerfield, Marshall and Waterloo.

Karyn Saemann, managing editor of the Cambridge News and Deerfield Independent and lead editor for Adams Publishing Group’s Lake Mills office, has been named managing editor of The Janesville Gazette.

Saemann, previously worked at the Beloit Daily News, the Daily Jefferson County Union and The Capital Times in Madison. Saemann will be succeeded by Cambridge News and Deerfield Independent associate editor Madeline Westberg.

Kimberly Wethal has stepped down as news editor at Unified Newspaper Group, she announced this week in a farewell column — the second such piece she's written for the company. The first followed a year-and-a-half internship that concluded in September 2014, while she was studying journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

Between her two stints at with the company, Wethal interned for The New York Times, served as news editor of UW-Whitewater's Royal Purple, and launched Kimberly Marie Photography.

Dennis “Denny” Etheridge has retired as circulation manager of the Clintonville Chronicle after 55 years in the newspaper industry, the newspaper announced Tuesday.

Etheridge, who turned 75 in March, joined the Chronicle when it was founded in 2009. Previously, he worked at the Clintonville Tribune-Gazette for 40 years.

Melissa Thorud, a native of White Bear Lake, Minn., has joined the Republican Eagle in Red Wing, Minn., as a local government, community events and business reporter. Thorud, who penned her job announcement in the Republican Eagle last Saturday, said that she has "always had a love for journalism and local news."

After earning her bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, Thorud worked as a reporter for the Pierce County Journal in Ellsworth.

Burlington native Lauren Henning has joined APG Media of Southern Wisconsin as a regional education reporter. She will cover schools for The Cambridge News and Deerfield Independent and The (Cottage Grove) Herald Independent and McFarland Thistle.

Henning previously was the education reporter for The (Racine) Journal Times. She earned her journalism degree in 2021 from UW-Madison, where she was a reporter and editor for The Badger Herald student newspaper.