Member News

Longtime editor Pat Mulvaney has retired after 22 years with the Monroe County Herald. Mulvaney joined the Sparta Herald and Monroe County Democrat as a reported in 1999. In 2005, he was named editor of the Herald, and remained in the role after the newspaper merged with the Democrat in 2015.

Mulvaney was succeeded by Kariann Farrey, who started her newspaper career working in the advertising departments at her hometown paper, the Daily Tribune, and later the (Manitowoc) Herald Times Reporter. She moved to the newsroom in 2000 and worked as a copy editor at the Times Reporter, a reporter at the Rapid City (S.D.) Journal, and as a copy editor for the La Crosse Tribune. Most recently, Farrey has worked remotely as a freelance copy editor for The Mason County Journal in Shelton, Wash., and The Buffalo (Wyo.) Bulletin.

Jim Ferolie, a longtime editor and manager with a group of suburban Madison newspapers, has been named regional executive editor for APG Media of Southern Wisconsin.

Ferolie, a native of Rockford, Ill., takes over the role previously held by Sid Schwartz, who retired in April. In his new role, he will oversee six daily newspapers and nine weeklies, including the Beloit Daily News, The (Janesville) Gazette and the Watertown Daily Times.

Travis Devlin, a Michigan native and graduate of Bowling Green State University in Ohio, has joined the Lake Geneva Regional News sports staff.

In college, Devlin was a sports reporter for The BG News student newspaper and served as an intern for the Toledo (Ohio) Business Journal. He previously worked as a part-time radio producer for SiriusXM in Washington, D.C., and a sports reporter at the Sidney (Mont.) Herald and The Athens (Ala.) News Courier.

Tom LaVenture, a veteran of more than 20 years in the newspaper industry, has been named managing editor of the Price County Review. Most recently, LaVenture spent two years as a staff writer for The Daily Globe in Ironwood, Mich. He previously held reporting roles at The Jamestown (N.D.) Sun, The Garden Island newspaper in Lihue, Hawaii, and The Daily Journal in International Falls, Minn.

Matt Bablick and Dawn Damrow also recently joined the newspaper as multimedia account executives.

Nealy Corcoran has been named editor of The (Osceola, Wis.) Sun and (Scandia, Minn.) Country Messenger. She began work on Nov. 3.

Corcoran previously was a contributing writer for the Country Messenger and the Stillwater (Minn.) Gazette, as well as the (Saint Paul, Minn.) Growler and (Eau Claire) Volume One magazines. She succeeds C.L. Sill, who accepted a position with Pheasants Forever in September.

Steve Clark, a veteran journalist with nearly three decades of newspaper experience, has joined the Oshkosh Herald as a staff writer and production editor. 

Clark, a UW-Whitewater graduate, is a Berlin native and current Oshkosh resident. He joins the Herald after having spent his career at newspapers including the Beloit Daily News, Berlin Journal Newspapers, and several Gannett-owned newspapers, including the Oshkosh Northwestern, The (Fond du Lac) Reporter, The Sheboygan Press and the (Manitowoc) Herald Times Reporter.

After 31 years in the Janesville newsroom, reporter Frank Schultz has retired from The Gazette, he announced in a column this week.

A 1986 UW-Madison journalism graduate, Schultz got his start in newspapers as a reporter at The Boscobel Dial. After later working for The Daily Item in Sunbury, Pa., he returned to Wisconsin in 1990 when he joined The Gazette.

Nathaniel Shuda, editor of the Oshkosh Northwestern since 2017, has been named editor of The (Fond du Lac) Reporter. He will oversee both newsrooms as former editor Taima Kern moves to a new role with The (Appleton) Post-Crescent, where she will lead a team of regional business reporters.

A UW-Eau Claire graduate and veteran journalist of 13 years with USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin, Shuda started as a reporter for his hometown (Wisconsin Rapids) Daily Tribune before joining the Northwestern as a reporter in 2014.

In a third staffing change, the network also announced that Kevin Dittman will take on a new role overseeing the group's night news operations and non-daily publications. Dittman, a UW-Oshkosh graduate, has been with the newspaper group for nearly 30 years. 

Trevor Greene and Kelly Holm are the two newest reporters in The Lakeland Times newsroom.

Born and raised in the Milwaukee area, Greene graduated from Pewaukee High School before earning his bachelor's degree in English from UW-Milwaukee. The job is his first in newspapers.

Holm, also a Wisconsin native, earned her bachelor's degree from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn., where she studied English and creative writing. While in college, she also wrote for the school's student newspaper, The Oracle. She previously served as an intern for The (Osceola) Sun. 

Jim Johnson, a longtime Iowa newspaper manager, has joined O'Rourke Media Group.

Johnson will serve as managing editor for five publications, two of which are online-only. They include the (Hudson) Star-Observer and River Falls Journal in Wisconsin and the Cannon Falls Beacon, Hastings Star Gazette and (Red Wing) Republican Eagle in Minnesota. The Republican Eagle also serves Ellsworth across the border in Wisconsin.

He fills the role vacated by Anne Jacobson, who left in September to become communications manager for Red Wing Public Schools. Jacobson had been with the company for 20 years, serving as editor of the Republican Eagle and later as news director.