Member News

Ben Priesgen, a vegetable farmer and local official, has joined the staff of the Dodge County Pionier, the newspaper has announced. In the new role, he will cover local sports, Lomira community stories and Village of Theresa government.

A Lomira native, Priesgen has a degree in management from UW-Oshkosh and is the owner of Country Blossom Organics. He also serves on the Dodge County Board of Supervisors and previously served on the Village of Lomira Board of Trustees.

Sam Bailey, who graduated this year from Emporia State University in Kansas with a degree in communications, has joined the Sheboygan Press as a reporter. She will cover local government and general news.

Bailey served as managing editor for The Bulletin student newspaper at ESU and as editor of The Hutchinson Collegian at Hutchinson Community College. She was named Kansas Collegiate Media Journalist of the Year twice — for four-year schools in 2023 and for two-year schools in 2021. She also recently completed an internship with the Kansas Reflector, an affiliate of States Newsroom.

Eric Wharton, who graduated this year from Denison University in Granville, Ohio, with a degree in journalism, has joined the staff of Adams Publishing of Southern Wisconsin. He will serve as the new arts and culture reporter for several Dane County communities.

A native of Centerburg, Ohio, Wharton is passionate about the arts, particularly music and painting, and enjoys writing nonfiction stories about his travels.

Ethan Ferrell, who graduated this year from UW-Madison with a degree in journalism, has joined the staff of Adams Publishing of Southern Wisconsin. He will report on the villages of DeForest, Windsor, Waunakee, Marshall and McFarland, along with the cities of Monona and Sun Prairie.

A Madison native who grew up in McFarland and graduated from McFarland High School, he is passionate about local government and writing. While in college, Ferrell wrote for The Badger Herald student newspaper and served as an international communications intern with CESI, a technical consulting and engineering company serving the electric power sector based in Milan, Italy. 

Sue Mizell, publisher of The Globe in Ironwood, Mich., has retired after 34 years in the industry and 11 years with the newspaper. In 2012, Mizell was named publisher of The Daily Globe, which transitioned to a weekly in September 2022. Before joining Stevenson Newspapers, she worked for the Sidney (Neb.) Telegraph, Media News Group – owner of the Denver Post, and newspapers in New Mexico, Idaho and Colorado.

Mizell is succeeded by former advertising director Heidi Ofstad, a native of Ironwood Township who graduated from Luther L. Wright High School. Ofstad joined the newspaper 20 years ago, starting in circulation.

Mary Kunasch, longtime publisher of the Waushara Argus, has retired from the newspaper after 56 years. Her last day was Friday, Sept. 29.

Kunasch began setting type at the newspaper in 1967. She worked her way up to production manager and became publisher in 1985. 

Wisconsin journalist Anthony McCulley is the new reporter covering village and city government in eastern Dane and western Jefferson counties for Adams Publishing Group’s Southern Division.

In the role, he will cover Cambridge, Deerfield, Cottage Grove, Lake Mills, Fort Atkinson and Jefferson. A resident of Cottage Grove, McCulley is a sophomore at Madison Area Technical College. He recently completed a journalism studies certificate and contributed print, social media and podcast content for the school newspaper, The Clarion.

Chloe Hilles, who has worked as a local government reporter for the last year at the La Crosse Tribune, has left the role to join the Chicago Tribune.

A graduate of Northwestern University with degrees in journalism and political science, Hilles joined the La Crosse newspaper in October 2022. While attending Northwestern, she reported for the Medill Investigative Lab, interned at Injustice Watch and was a content writer for Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. 

Abigail Makowiak, a recent college graduate, has joined the (Black River Falls) Banner Journal as a general assignment reporter.

Makowiak, a Brookfield native who resides in Merrillan, graduated from Hartford Union High School in Richfield. In 2023, she earned a bachelor's degree in creative writing from UW-Eau Claire, where she minored in multimedia communications.

Sara Zimmerman, a former lifestyle/entertainment reporter for the Oshkosh Northwestern and (Appleton) Post-Crescent, has released a new novel.

"Every Dark Shadow," is a young adult/adult crossover fantasy set across parallel versions of New York in the 1800s. It was released under the pen name Sara Zimm. Zimmerman earned her journalism degree in 2005 from UW-Oshkosh, where she wrote for the student newspaper The Advance-Titan. She worked as a reporter for Gannett from 2005 to 2008, before shifting to a career in marketing and communications. She resides in Appleton with her husband and son.