Transitions

 

CONNECTICUT

Sam Gett, former publisher of The News-Times of Danbury, has been named vice president of development at the Northfield (Minn.) News. Gett will continue in his previous role as publisher of the Northfield News in addition to managing the company’s new-media work. Gett joined the Northfield News last year.

 

MAINE

Joe Michaud, president of MaineToday.com, will leave at the end of April to start a consulting company. Michaud has led MaineToday.com since the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram established the online company in September 1995. Michaud was city editor at the time and moved to MaineToday.com to be an online editor. He became president of MaineToday.com in 1999. He began with the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram as an editor in 1980.

Elizabeth Comeau, staff writer and member of the Web team at the Kennebec Journal of Augusta, has moved to Boston.com, Web site of The Boston Globe, as overnight content producer. In her new role, Comeau will be involved in getting Boston Globe content and overnight breaking news onto Boston.com. Comeau worked at the Kennebec Journal for three years, covering five towns and two school districts besides general assignments. She earlier did a yearlong fellowship at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, Fla., working as online reporter for Poynter.org.

Kristen Anderson, former feature writer, columnist and reporter for the Bangor Daily News, left the paper in early March to join the University of Maine in Orono’s university relations staff. Anderson spent 11 years at the Bangor Daily News, predominantly as a Lifestyle section feature writer whose focus was on performing arts, fashion and shopping. Anderson also wrote the paper’s popular ShopGirl column.

 

MASSACHUSETTS

Christopher Hall, executive director of labor/employee relations/safety at The Boston Globe, has been promoted to vice president/human resources. Hall will be responsible for employee development, recruitment and hiring. He will also oversee benefits and services, health services, and diversity and inclusion for the Globe. Hall has been in various employee relations roles at the Globe for 15 years.

Frederick F. Fedesco (left), circulation director at The Republican of Springfield, has been promoted to vice president and general manager there. He will continue to oversee circulation. Before joining the Republican in 2003 as circulation director, Fedesco was publisher of The Record of Troy, N.Y. He also worked as circulation director at the New Haven (Conn.) Register. He also held various management positions at The Hartford (Conn.) Courant.

 

 

Richard Whippen, national advertising manager for GateHouse Media New England, based in Needham, Mass., is leaving the company March 17 to join Washington Suburban Press Network of Reston, Va., as a vice president of sales. Whippen began working with the Boston Herald’s telecenter years ago, working his way up to retail advertising manager in his nine years at the Herald. He also spent two years as advertising director with The Warren Group of Boston, publisher of Banker & Tradesman and The Commercial Record, before moving to GateHouse. Washington Suburban Press Network is a newspaper-owned advertising group that includes 99 weeklies and dailies in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.

Michael Corcoran (left) has been named by GateHouse Media New England as advertising director for its South region, which includes 31 weekly newspapers on the South Shore. Corcoran earlier worked as a senior financial analyst at GateHouse Media’s Needham office. His work there supported advertising, circulation, creative and production areas of the company. He has worked for GateHouse Media New England since 1999, when he became a financial analyst in the company’s Marshfield office.

 

Frank Quaratiello (left) has been named business editor of the Boston Herald to replace Greg Gatlin (right), who has become director of public affairs at Suffolk University in Boston. Quaratiello has been at the Herald for 11 years. He has been deputy business editor for the past two years and business copy desk chief before that. Before coming to the Herald, he spent two years as a night desk editor and regional city editor at the Concord (N.H.) Monitor. Quaratiello also was a reporter and editor for the Gilroy (Calif.) Dispatch and the Hollister (Calif.) Freelance immediately after graduating from Stanford University in 1990. Gatlin will oversee print, broadcast and online media relations for Suffolk University. He will be responsible for Suffolk’s law school, college of arts and sciences, and business school, satellite locations in Eastern Massachusetts, and international campuses in Madrid, Spain, and Dakar, Senegal. Gatlin spent 10 years at the Boston Herald in roles that included deputy business editor and reporter. He previously worked as a business reporter at the Patriot Ledger of Quincy and Metrowest Daily News of Framingham.

 

MASSACHUSETTS, RHODE ISLAND

Brian Carovillano, a former staff member of Associated Press bureaus in Providence and Boston, has been promoted from Northern California news editor for Associated Press to its regional editor for the South, based in Atlanta. Carovillano began with AP in Providence in 2001, where he was lead reporter for the federal corruption trial of Providence Mayor Vincent “Buddy” Cianci. He also covered the 2003 fire at The Station nightclub in West Warwick, R.I. He transferred to the Boston bureau that year and covered the first legalized gay marriages in the United States, the 2004 Democratic National Convention and the 2004 Red Sox World Series win. He will lead coverage of a 13-state area from Maryland to Florida and west to Louisiana.

 

NEW HAMPSHIRE

John Clayton (left), longtime columnist at the New Hampshire Union Leader of Manchester, has stepped down. Clayton, who began writing his column about Manchester in 1991, joined the paper as a reporter in 1984. In 1995, he began writing a statewide column, John Clayton at Large. Some of Clayton’s columns have been compiled into books. Clayton’s future plans were undecided, but his column in the Union Leader Feb. 25 said he was considering an offer by the Union Leader to continue as a freelance columnist for the paper.

 

 

RHODE ISLAND

Annmarie Brisson (left), former advertising manager for the Independent newspaper group, based in Wakefield, has been appointed advertising director of Edward A. Sherman Publishing Co. of Newport. Besides the Independent newspapers -- the South County Independent, South County Living, both of Wakefield, and North-East Independent of North Kingstown -- Sherman Publishing also owns The Newport Daily News and Newport Life Magazine. Brisson joined the newspaper group as an advertising representative in 2001.