Member News

Publisher Paul Fanlund on Monday announced several staffing changes at The Cap Times.

After two years as opinion editor, Jessie Opoien is moving back to a reporting role, joining Briana Reilly in covering the Wisconsin State Capitol. Taking over as opinion editor will be Steven Elbow, who has been a reporter with The Cap Times since 1999. 

In additional moves, Fanlund noted that higher education reporter Yvonne Kim has left the newspaper to move out of state. As they look to fill her position, The Cap Times newsroom will be bolstered by two interns this summer, Cam Cieszki and Addison Lathers, both UW students.

Sara Rae Lancaster has been named social media editor for the Peninsula Pulse, the Baileys Harbor newspaper announced Friday.

Lancaster joined the staff full-time May 3 after having served as editor for the newspaper’s 2021 edition of Door Wedding. In addition to social media, her duties include feature writing for the Pulse and Door County Living.

Clint Wolf, who joined the Beloit Daily News in 1990 as AP wire editor and has served as news editor for the past 20  years, has been named editor of the newspaper.

Wolf takes over the role following the retirement of Sid Schwartz, who had served as editor of the Daily News since November. Prior to Schwartz, the position had been held for more than 40 years by Bill Barth, a member of the Wisconsin Newspaper Hall of Fame.

Anna Marie Lux, a longtime columnist for The (Janesville) Gazette, has resigned from the newspaper to pursue an independent writing project.

Lux began writing human-interest columns for The Gazette in the early 1990s. She remained with the newspaper for 30 years, and by her count, wrote nearly 3,000 columns during that time.

Eric Schmoldt has stepped down as sports editor of The (Janesville) Gazette after more than eight years in the role, he announced in a column Friday.

After more than 30 years in the newspaper industry, Jeff Seisser has stepped down from his sports editor role with Adams Publishing Group.

For the last three-plus years, Seisser served as sports editor for the Sun Prairie Star, The (Waterloo/Marshall) Courier and The Cambridge News and Deerfield Independent. He previously had served in the same role for the Daily Jefferson County Union in Fort Atkinson.

James Moran has joined The Chetek Alert, where he will handle advertising sales duties. Moran joins the newspaper after nearly two years leading a pair of Adams Publishing Group newspapers, the Ashland Daily Press and the (Phillips) Price County Review. 

He takes over the role previously held by Julie LeMoine, who is moving to a graphic design position.

After a year of primarily remote work, Unified Newspaper Group is consolidating in-person operations into its downtown Oregon office.

The move will close the group’s longtime Verona headquarters and move all four newspapers to 156 N. Main St., Oregon. UNG publishes The Verona Press, The Oregon Observer, The Stoughton Courier Hub and the Fitchburg Star. UNG general manager Jim Ferolie said in the announcement that consolidating will reduce the group’s facility costs by about 90%.

Benjamin Pierce is the newest member of the Unified Newspaper Group reporting staff. He will cover sports and community news.

Pierce previously spent two years with The (Janesville) Gazette as an education reporter, while covering sports part-time. A La Crosse native, he was a sportswriter for nearby Lee Enterprises’ weekly newspapers while attending Western Technical College. He later attended UW-Whitewater, where he served as assistant news editor and managing editor of the Royal Purple student newspaper.