Heritage Newspapers, Inc. Executive Team

President and Publisher

Jim Williams


Jim Williams is President and Publisher of Heritage Newspapers Inc. Jim began his newspaper career in 1982 at Alliance, Ohio working for The Review, as a mailroom employee and eventually working his way into the advertising department where he served in numerous roles including outside sales representative and National sales manager. Jim then became the classified manager for The Canton, Ohio Free Press where he helped in the development of an Alliance area edition. Following his stint in Canton, Jim joined the Massillon, Ohio Independent as a Classified Automotive salesperson and later Classified Sales Manager, 4 years later; Jim joined Landon Associates as a District Sales Manager responsible for National advertising sales for the Greater Cleveland Newspaper Network as well as, 26 other daily newspapers in northeastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania and southwestern New York. Jim's next assignment came with Thomson newspapers as Advertising Director of the Salem News in Salem, Ohio, 2 years later Jim found himself transferred to Canton, Ohio to The Repository as Retail Advertising Manager. Three years later Jim was employed as Advertising Director at The New Philadelphia, Ohio Times-Reporter. The next move came 4 years later and took Jim and his family to Upstate New York where Jim served as Publisher of The Record, in Troy, NY. Jim was transferred by Journal Register Co. to his current position in February 2004. Jim is the past chairman of the Southwestern Wayne county Chamber of Commerce and is currently a board member of its executive committee. Jim also serves as a board member of SNA (Suburban Newspapers of America) and as a board member of the Metropolitan Detroit YMCA.

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Corporate Director of Online Operations

Annette Cortiana Clark
aclark@journalregister.com

Annette Cortiana Clark has been with Heritage Newspapers (Journal Register Company) since 1992. As Corporate Director of Online Operations, her focus is on creating a new online environment that bundle interactive and traditional media services and building an infrastructure for classified advertising that creates new efficiencies and maximizes revenue opportunities throughout Journal Register. She has enjoyed the responsibilities of several posts throughout various divisions of Heritage including Director of Online Servces, Operations General Manager, Sales Manager and Art Director for Heritage Multi-Media, and Customer Relations Manager for Greenleaper LLC. Prior to joining Heritage Newspapers, Annette worked for Eastman Kodak Company, Graphic Imaging Systems Division where she completed technical sales training and earned a BS in Business-Advertising from Ferris State University.

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Director of Circulation

Robert Riddell
briddell@heritage.com

Bob Riddell, Director of Circulation, is responsible for all circulation activities including marketing and promotion for all Heritage Newspapers publications. He started his career as Circulation Manager of the Macomb County Community News in 1968. Bob joined Panax Corporation in 1975 and has held positions as circulation manager of the Dearborn Press & Guide Newspapers, the circulation director of the Globe & Advertisers in Fairfax, Virginia and the Wyandotte News-Herald. He was named Heritage Newspapers Regional Circulation Director in 1986, and became Assistant Publisher of the Dearborn Press & Guide in 1989 and Publisher in 1991. Bob has been in his current position since 1998.

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Regional Production Director

Jerry Leasure
jleasure@heritage.com

Jerry Leasure joined Heritage Newspapers in October 2003 as the Production Director for the central production facility in Southgate, MI. Jerry is a graduate of Eastern Michigan University and most recently worked as Director of Customer Service for Baseview Products, a newspaper publishing systems vendor in Ann Arbor, MI. Prior to Baseview, Jerry was with Thomson Newspapers Southwest Ohio. During his time at Thomson, he managed the Production department for the group's largest daily newspaper in Hamilton, OH. He was also the group-wide Production Systems Manager managing all front-end and pre-press production systems for the newspaper group. Jerry started his career in the newspaper industry in 1989 as a Support Group Leader with CText, Inc., another newspaper publishing systems vendor in Ann Arbor.

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Managing Editor

Karl Ziomek
editor@thenewsherald.com

Karl Ziomek is Managing Editor of The News-Herald and also serves as Regional Director of all editorial departments for Heritage Newspapers. Before being named managing editor in 1990, Karl was sports editor of The News-Herald. Prior to joining the News-Herald, he was news editor with the Times-Herald Newspapers in Dearborn. Karl holds a bachelor's of arts degree in journalism from Wayne State University and was named the winner of the Outstanding Alumni Award by the Journalism Department in 1995. He has won numerous writing awards at both the state and national levels and also awards for newspaper design. Karl is a member of the board of directors of the Michigan Press Association and a member of the Society of Newspaper Design.

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