Halifax Media Group, which acquired The Press Democrat in January, unveiled a new organizational structure Monday that divides the company into three units under the direction of regional publishers.
Its three publications in California — The Press Democrat, Petaluma Argus-Courier and North Bay Business Journal — will be placed with 11 other newspapers in Florida and Louisiana under new Central Region publisher Roger Quinn, formerly publisher of The Spartanburg (S.C.) Herald-Journal.
Press Democrat Publisher Bruce Kyse will continue to oversee the Sonoma County publications and will report to Quinn, who will be based in Panama City, Fla.
Last month, Halifax closed a deal to buy eight daily and 11 weekly papers in Florida and North Carolina from Freedom Communications, increasing its holdings from 17 to 36 media companies.
"The explosion of growth in such a short time challenged our team to build new models that could meet the growing needs of the company," Halifax CEO Michael Redding said in a statement. "This has created the need to organize the company into three regions. The regions will help the newspapers communicate more efficiently."
The north region will be headed by Rick Martin, based in Gastonia, N.C.,; the south region by Jim Doughton, based in Gainesville, Fla.
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