As a new year dawns, The Associated Press restructures, a real estate billionaire buys Tribune, and other friends take new jobs

Jody Calendar is president of Calendar Communications, Inc. in Tinton Falls, N.J. Reach her via e-mail at consultjody@aol.com.

Sue Clark-Johnson, the head of Gannett's newspaper division, has announced plans to retire after a 40-year career with the country's largest newspaper company. Clark-Johnson was named president of Gannett's newspaper division in 2005 and is currently chairwoman of the Newspaper Association of America, a term that will expire this spring.

Carole Leigh Hutton, editor of the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News since May 2007, suddenly stepped down in January and told Editor & Publisher that she is forging into a new field.

She is replaced by David J. Butler, formerly vice president for news at the MediaNews Group, owner of The Mercury News, and prior to that editor and publisher of the Detroit News.

The Associated Press has restructured operations and hence made a number of management changes.

Mike Silverman, former managing editor of the Associated Press has been promoted to the new position of senior managing editor. Silverman will maintain operations for the overall daily news report while leading the restructuring of the company's national, regional, state and Washington news operations, according to Kathleen Carroll, who announced the new management plan. He has been managing editor since 2000.

AP also named news executives John Daniszewski, Lou Ferrara and Kirstan Gazlay as managing editors.

Gazlay will supervise planning global training while keeping her oversight of financial news; Ferrara will oversee the sports and entertainment news operations as well as restructuring the graphics and online news operations; John Daniszewski will oversee all international news operations and deputy managing editors Sally Jacobsen and Tom Kent will take on new responsibilities, as well.

Sam Zell, the real estate billionaire, has just taken the helm of the Tribune Co. in an $8.2 million buyout. He has been named chairman after an eight month negotiation with the second largest newspaper operation, which includes the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times. Dennis Fitzsimmons stepped down as Tribune Co. chairman and CEO when the deal closed recently.

Omaha World-Herald publisher John Gottschalk, who has served in that position for 18 years, has retired as of Jan. 1. He is also the chief executive officer of the Omaha World-Herald Company, which owns 28 newspapers. The company chose President Terry Kroeger to be the next publisher and CEO. Gottschalk will remain chairman of the board.

Dennis Herzog, formerly managing editor of the Daily Sentinel, Grand Junction, Colo., has been named editor.

Bruce Mohl, an investigative reporter and political editor, at The Boston Globe for more than 30 years has been named editor of CommonWealth magazine, a quarterly journal of Massachusetts politics and civic life.

Stephen A. Borg has been named president of North Jersey Media Group. He succeeds Jon Markey, who is retiring. Borg is also the publisher of The Record of Hackensack and the Herald News in West Paterson and President of NJMG's Community Newspaper & Magazines.

USA TODAY buyouts included veteran television and media writer Peter Johnson, who will join his wife, Tory, as a contributor to Good Morning America, at her business Women for Hire in New York City.

Also, included in the USA TODAY buyout program was Adell Crowe, senior editor of standards and development. She created and ran USAT University, which provided training at USAT for 15 years.

James Pindell, one of the first full-time political bloggers, is leaving The Boston Globe to help launch a new national network of political Web sites run by Observer Media. Pindell, will be the national managing editor of the state based blog, The Politicker.com, that is set to launch this spring.

Julia Park Tracey has been named publisher and executive editor of The Alameda (Calif) Sun and its parent corporation, Stellar Media Group, Inc. She was the founding editor of the newspaper and has been co-editor of the East Bay Monthly in Berkeley, Calif., since 2006.

Elizabeth Crumbly was named editor of Catoosa County News in Ringgold, Ga. James W. Hall has been named chairman and chief executive of Journal Register Co. in Yardley, Pa.

Jeffrey Parra has been named president and publisher of Journal Register Co.'s Independent Newspapers, Inc. and will serve as publisher of the Macomb Daily in Mount Clemens, Mich. He was previously was publisher of suburban bureaus for The Commercial Appeal in Memphis.

Kenneth J. Eysaman has been named editor of The Union-Recorder in Milledgeville, Ga.

Kevin Herrera has been named editor of the Santa Monica (Calif.) Daly Press. He succeeds Michael Tittinger.

Richard Nelson, who worked at the Daily Progress from 2001-2003 as a sports and news editor, and was named editor of its sister paper, The Orange Leader has also been named editor of the Jacksonville (Texas) Daily Progress.

David Stoeffler, former vice president for news of Lee Enterprises and former editor in Lincoln, Neb., and La Crosse, Wis., has left Lee to form his own consultancy, Touchstone News Consulting. David is focusing on helping others develop new revenue streams and audiences through new print and online products. He also will help newsrooms improve their journalism and offer ideas for improving management efficiency and effectiveness.

And sadly, as in every issue, we have to list a few of those we have lost. They include: Vivian Alpin-Brownlee, a Washington Post weekly section editor who early on doubted the Janet Cooke's fabricated "Jimmy's World" Pulitzer Prize-winning piece; Gene Roguski of the Old Chicago Today; Victor Tekirian, a New Jersey photo engraver who worked for The Star-Ledger, Newark, N.J.; Rene J. Cappon, AP editor and respected wordsmith; Pulitzer-Prize winning photographer Arnold Hardy; Ruth King, long time owner of the Holdrege Daily Citizen; J. Wesley "Wes" Sullivan, a longtime Statesman Journal editor; and media critic and journalist, Robert Schulman, known for his signature bow tie. A total of 134 journalists died on foreign soil in 2007.