Jim Keyes

Jim Keyes, digital sales manager for Territorial Newspapers in Tucson, has been named digital media sales manager for Wick Communications Company.

Keyes fills a new revenue position in the company and will work closely with Christian Ramirez, who, as digital media manager, handles web technology for the company.  Keyes will report to Cindy Hefley, advertising director for Wick Communications Company.  Keyes takes on his new role effective immediately.

“Jim has already traveled to several Wick locations to help build digital sales,” Hefley said.  “Every time Jim travels, we see good results and hear positive feedback from those who work with him. Jim is an experienced trainer and mentor to the sales staff and managers”.

In late 2011, Keyes joined Territorial Newspapers.  Before that, he worked at the Santa Fe New Mexican as digital sales manager.  There, he helped lead a website redesign and increase online revenue by 35 percent in an eight months.   Prior to that, Keyes worked at Tucson Newspapers  Inc., as a senior online specialist.

Keyes graduated from the University of Arizona with a bachelor’s degree in marketing.

He and his wife, Lorenza, will continue to live in Tucson. 

Lou Major

By Bob & Walt Wick

"There will always be a need for good story telling," Lou Major Sr. often said. Besides being a good story teller, we think the long-time newspaperman turned out to be a pretty good story himself, starting as a cub reporter and ending as the CEO of our family-owned newspaper company, overseeing more than 25 newspapers.

Lou, 82, died this week/recently after a several-year battle with lymphoma.

He started at The Daily News in Bogalusa, La., now part of Wick Communications, as a cub reporter in 1951, fresh out of journalism school at Louisiana State University.

"We had a lot of red beans and Spam back then," Lou would tell about his early days in the newspaper business.

He went on to become that newspaper's editor and publisher, then on to become the CEO of Wick Communications, our family's company that owns more than 28 newspapers and specialty publications in 12 states. After Lou got into management at The Daily News in 1963, he started working with our father, Wick's founder, Milton Wick, and with Milt bought and started newspapers all over the country.

After Milt Wick's death the company was reorganized with the two of us, Milt's sons, becoming co-chairmen and Lou taking over as CEO. He retired as CEO in 2002, but continued to work with us on the company's board through 2012, marking more than 60 years with the same company where he started as that cub reporter.Lou was honored in 2012 by being inducted into the LSU Manship School of Mass Communication Hall of Fame, which recognized him for his efforts with The Daily News to report on civil rights issues through the racial unrest in his community in the 60s, despite several attempts of intimidation from the Ku Klux Klan that included burning crosses at the newspaper's office and on the front lawn of his home, and personal threats to him and his family.

Lou credited Bascomb Talley Jr., a Bogalusa businessman and stockholder with the paper when Lou first started working there, for seeing potential in him and encouraging the company to develop him as a manager.

"He really went to bat for me," Lou would later say about Talley's efforts on his behalf. Lou evidently remembered Talley's mentorship, as he would go on to nurture numerous Wick newspaper employees' careers, giving dozens a chance to take over as publishers of papers in our company, like Will Chapman, currently publisher of The Daily Iberian in New Iberia, La., and a group manager for Wick. Chapman tells how he was hired to be ad manager in New Iberia and thought he'd be there "a couple of years" as he sought to become a publisher.

"Twenty-six years ago, Lou Sr. gave me the chance to take over one of Wick's largest operations, despite it meaning I'd be their youngest publisher." Like happened for Lou, Chapman said, "Lou Major really went to bat for me."

From starting as a cub reporter covering high school sports at a small town paper, later battling the Ku Klux Klan, and then working his way up to publisher,and then CEO of our company, Lou Major never forgot that it all starts with telling a good story. We think his career in newspapers and especially his story with Wick Communications is a story worth noting.

Lou Major Sr.

Lou Major, whose journalism career in Louisiana and with Wick Communications Company spanned six decades, died on Tuesday. Major, a native of New Orleans who resided in Bogalusa, La., for 55 years, had lived in Slidell, La., since 2006. He was 82 when he died after a lengthy battle with lymphoma.

Born in Meridian, Miss., he was reared in New Orleans and Jefferson Parish. He attended Tulane University for two years and was a journalism graduate from Louisiana State University. He joined The Daily News in Bogalusa as a news reporter in 1951. After subsequently serving as sports editor, news editor, and general manager, Major became publisher of the paper in 1963. He also served a period as publisher of The St. Tammany News-Banner and The Slidell Sentry News, both in St. Tammany Parish.

In 1993, Major became executive vice president of Wick Communications Co.  He then became president and chief executive officer at Wick.  He guided the company’s operations from his office at The Daily News in Bogalusa via phone, fax, and email. He served on the Wick board of directors while he was the company’s chief operating officer, and continued on the board after his retirement in 2002. When his final term ended in 2012, he had worked with Wick Communications at local and corporate level for 60 years.

Major was a member of the Louisiana Press Association 50-Year Club, and was inducted into the LSU's Manship School of Journalism Hall of Fame in recognition of his long career in community journalism. At the induction ceremony in Baton Rouge, Major was honored for his courage in leading The Daily News' coverage of Bogalusa's civil rights activities in the 1960s, in spite of threats by the Ku Klux Klan to The Daily News, and to Major and his family.

During his career in Bogalusa, Major was honored as one of Bogalusa's Young Men of the Year by the Bogalusa Jaycees. When Jaycees’ sponsorship of that program ended, The Daily News, under Major, picked up sponsorship and expanded it to Citizen of the Year to include women. Later, in addition to the Bogalusa Citizen of the Year, Major put the newspaper's support behind the similar Citizen of the Year program in Franklinton, La.
Major also instituted and personally coordinated each year the Christmas Care and Share Program, which has provided holiday food boxes to thousands of Washington Parish families for more than 20 years.

Major was active in the Mill Town Players and served on that community theater group’s board of directors. He served as president of Bogalusa Community Concerts, on the boards of the United Way, the Red Cross, and the Salvation Army, and was a member of the Bogalusa Rotary Club.

He was preceded in death by his parents, A.J. Major Sr. of New Roads and Bertha Lawrence Major or Laurel, Miss.; by his brother A.J. Major Jr., and by his sister Delores Major Harmeyer.

He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Blanche “Peggy” Ripp Major of Slidell; sons Lou Major Jr. of Stafford, Va., Steven Major and wife Renee of Cleveland, Ga., Jason Major and wife Deanna of Singapore; daughter Christie Major Hall and husband Rick of Covington, La.; and six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
In accordance with his wishes, a private family service will be held.

Steve Baker, publisher of the Capital Journal in Pierre, SD

South Dakota Newspaper Association

Steve Baker, publisher of the Capital Journal in Pierre, was elected president of South Dakota Newspaper Association on April 26 during the annual newspaper convention in Rapid City.

Baker grew up in Minot, N.D. He began his career in his hometown newspaper working there from 1979 until 1991. Baker has been a publisher for Ogden Newspapers in Minot, N.D., Lee Enterprises in Burley, Idaho, and Media News in Red Bluff, Calif.

Baker returned to the Dakotas in 2008 when he was named the publisher of the Capital Journal in Pierre. The Capital Journal is owned by Wick Communication, a family-owned media company with holdings in several states.

Baker and his wife, Kim, have one child, Kelly. Kelly, his wife, Danielle, and their son, Lucca, live in Fargo, N.D.

Baker said one the focuses of his term as president will be to continue the work on open government issues including the publishing of public notices.

“This is not just a media issue; our readers need to be aware of the consequences of government policing itself,” Baker said. “Freeman Courier Publisher Tim Waltner said it best when he said there are three key aspects of public notices: permanence, verifiability and independence.”

Baker has also been an advocate for the newspaper industry in the South Dakota Legislature.

During this year’s legislative session, Baker testified on Senate Bill 119, which prohibits public schools from entering into exclusive contracts for news media coverage of interscholastic events such as football and basketball games. The bill was approved by legislators and signed into law by Gov. Dennis Daugaard.

Baker said after living and working in other states, he is thrilled to be in South Dakota.

“This is home for us,” he said.

Also elected to the SDNA Board of Directors were: First Vice President Paul Buum, publisher of The Alcester Union & Hudsonite; Second Vice President John Suhr, publisher of the Reporter & Farmer, Webster; Third Vice President Jan Kittelson, of the Miller Press, Wessington Times Enterprise and Wolsey News; Director Randell Beck, publisher of the Argus Leader, Sioux Falls; Director Becky Tycz, publisher of the Scotland Journal, Tyndall Tribune & Register and Springfield Times; and Immediate Past President Charley Najacht, publisher of the Custer County Chronicle, Hill City Prevailer and Winner Advocate.

The SDNA Board members were elected at the association’s annual business meeting held in conjunction with the convention.

South Dakota Newspaper Association, founded in 1882 and based in Brookings, represents 130 weekly and daily newspapers with a total readership of more than 600,000.

SDNA

The Half Moon Bay Review has been judged the third best small weekly in the nation and the best in its class in California.

On April 27, the California Newspaper Publishers Association announced the newspaper was its General Excellence winner among weekly newspapers of similar sizes. It is the first time the newspaper has been so honored in at least a decade. The newspaper also took the top prize for best front page, best overall design and best photo essay.

The newspaper took second place for editorial comment, for an editorial urging the Coastside Fire Protection District to keep its Cal Fire contract, for a Mark Noack feature story about a spear fisherman, and in the artistic photo category for a Charles Russo photo of a surfer coming out of the mist.

"It's nice to take a step back and get an objective view from our newspaper peers and professionals in the industry. And they all agree: The Half Moon Bay Review is one of the best newspapers around," said Publisher Bill Murray, who was in Los Angeles for the awards banquet. "There are more than 700 newspapers in the CNPA and the one category they all enter is General Excellence."

Separately, the newspaper took third place in the Local Media Association's Newspaper of the Year contest. That award was announced earlier in the week. The association has members across the United States and Canada and the Review's division included newspapers with nearly twice the circulation and staff. The award considers the entire newspaper, from editorial coverage to the effectiveness of advertising.