Member News

Gary Ridderbusch, who has led the (Eagle River) Vilas County News-Review newsroom for the past decade, has retired as editor.

Ridderbusch, an Abbotsford native and UW-Madison graduate, joined the News-Review staff in April 1985 as an assistant editor. He has remained with the newspaper ever since, moving up to top editor in January 2010 when then-editor Kurt Krueger was named publisher.

Larry Gallup has been named editor of The (Appleton) Post-Crescent, where he has worked for more than 29 years. He succeeds Jim Fitzhenry, vice president of news for USA TODAY NETWORK-Central Wisconsin. Fitzhenry had filled the position since December 2018, following the departure of Ed Berthiaume.

A UW-Madison graduate, Gallup started his career at the Duluth (Minn.) News Tribune before moving on to the Wisconsin State Journal. In 1992, he accepted the position of sports editor with the Post-Crescent. He went on to serve as the newspaper's editorial page editor, as well as audience analyst, regional content strategist and consumer experience director for USA TODAY NETWORK-Central Wisconsin.

Tara Jones has been named managing editor for Wisconsin Media Group‘s suburban Madison publications. Jones will oversee the newsrooms at the Fitchburg Star, The Oregon Observer, The Stoughton Courier Hub and The Verona Press. She also will continue to serve as managing editor of the Sheboygan Sun.

Previously, Jones had served as a reporter for the Sun. She also held reporting roles at The Lima (Ohio) News and the Sentinel-Tribune in Bowling Green, Ohio. In 2015, Jones earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism from Bowling Green State University, where she served as sports editor for The BG News student newspaper.

Anne Trautner has left the Campbellsport News and Kewaskum Statesman, after serving as editor of the newspapers for a little more than a month, following the departure of Andrea Hansen Abler. Prior to that time, Trautner worked as a reporter for the newspaper. Trautner’s new roles will be as executive director of the Wisconsin 9/11 Memorial & Education Center and as town clerk for the town of Kewaskum. 

She will be succeeded by Mitchell Keller, who also serves as editor of the (Mayville) Dodge County Pionier. Keller has been with the Pionier since October 2018. Joining Keller on the news staff will be Clarice Case, a Mayville High School graduate who earned her bachelor’s degree from Lakeland University in December 2020.

Heather Graves has been named editor of The (Green Bay) Press Times. While new to the editor’s role, Graves started with the newspaper in April 2019 as a freelancer and became a full-time staff member in May 2021.

Prior to joining The Press Times, she worked for several news outlets, including three television stations in the Green Bay area and more than a dozen newspapers and magazines. Graves earned her bachelor’s degree from UW-Green Bay with an emphasis in print journalism before starting her career at the Green Bay News-Chronicle.

Ashley (Haynes) Smart has joined BizTimes Milwaukee as a reporter covering startups, technology and manufacturing. Smart previously worked for Conley Media as an education reporter for The (Waukesha) Freeman and, most recently, as managing editor of the (West Bend) Daily News and (Cedarburg) News Graphic.

A 2017 graduate of UW-Milwaukee, Smart worked in college for Media Milwaukee, the school's digital-first news publication. She also did freelance work for The Freeman while in school.

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.