Member News

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.

Kelly Lecker, a veteran journalist and Wisconsin native, has been named executive editor of the Wisconsin State Journal. She succeeds Jason Adrians, who was named vice president of local news for Lee Enterprises in January.

Lecker is the interim editor and managing/investigative editor for the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, where she has spent the last 13 years. Prior to joining the Gannett-owned newspaper, she served as an editor at The Toledo (Ohio) Blade  and worked as a reporter for The (Fort Wayne, Ind.) Journal Gazette. She earned her bachelor's degree in journalism and Spanish from UW-Stevens Point.

Eric A. Johnson, a veteran journalist and former newspaper owner, has joined the Lake Geneva Regional News as a reporter.

Johnson is the former editor and publisher of the Boulder Junction-based FYI Northwoods News, a bi-weekly newspaper he owned from 2010 to 2018. Prior to his move to Lake Geneva, he served as assistant editor of the Vilas County News-Review in Eagle River, as a business reporter for The (Racine) Journal Times, and as a reporter for The Lakeland Times in Minocqua.

Pete Wicklund, managing editor of the Kenosha News, will retire this week after a 37-year career in journalism. Wicklund’s last day at the newspaper will be Friday, March 4. John Sloca, who has worked as deputy editor under Wicklund, will lead the newsroom as local news editor.

Wicklund has been managing editor of the News since October 2020. Prior to his time in Kenosha, he spent 21 years with The Journal Times. He started in the Burlington bureau and went on to serve as a police reporter, copy editor, photographer and assistant managing editor. Wicklund and his wife, Susan Shemanske, are part owners of the Washington Island Observer.