Peter Goonan has been a journalist with The Republican, a daily newspaper in Springfield, Mass., since 1984, and also writes for MassLive.com.

His beat includes coverage of the MGM Springfield casino located in Springfield, from its inception to its completion and ongoing operations. He has also covered related gaming issues and some meetings of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. He is also the Springfield City Hall beat reporter and covers local politics and general assignments.

He is 1979 graduate of the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism.

He lives in Chicopee, Mass., with his wife Lisa, and has two adult sons. He is a long-term member and current vice-president

As a business writer for The Day of New London, Conn., Brian Hallenbeck has covered gaming since 2009, a beat dominated by southeastern Connecticut’s two casinos, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, and the sovereign Indian tribes that respectively own and operate them, the Mashantucket Pequots and the Mohegans. Combined, the casinos are among the state’s largest employers and taxpayers. During his long newspaper career, Brian also has covered sports, written features and been an editor. He grew up in Enfield, Conn., and graduated from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism.

ED HENNINGER has been an independent newspaper consultant since 1989 and is the Director of Henninger Consulting in Rock Hill, SC. He is universally recognized as the world’s leading design consultant for community newspapers.

The Southampton Press, one of Ed’s redesign clients, has been named the Best Community Newspaper in the nation by the National Newspaper Association. From the judges: “Spectacular package of information—news, features, photos, ads—all excellently produced. Clean, fresh design, layout throughout. Great No. 1 in a strong field.”

The Western Catholic Reporter, a Henninger Consulting client, was named the best
designed church paper in all of Canada by Canadian Church Press. The judge said The
Western Catholic Reporter had “a sophisticated presentation of news through images,
design and typography. Every page is a surprise, interesting in its treatment, complex
in design, yet easy to read.” The Western Catholic Reporter, he said, is “a paper to be
proud of.”

He recently completed redesigns of the Cullman Daily Times in Cullman, AL; the
Spencer Evening World in Spencer, IN; The Clay County News in Sutton, NE; the
Madelia Times-Messenger in Madelia, MN; and the Holyoke Enterprise in Holyoke, CO
Ed has traveled to the Ukraine, the Republic of Georgia and Armenia to offer design
workshops and assist with redesigns of several newspapers in those countries.

He created the Francis A. Henninger Grant Program with the goal of making newspaper
design services affordable for every newspaper—especially those with limited
circulation, revenue and staff size. It’s Ed’s effort to reach out to those publishers and
editors who believe their newspapers can’t receive professional design help. Ultimately,
the objective is to bring a new level of design, direction and distinction to those papers
that qualify.

Major seminars and workshops at which Ed has spoken:
Institute for Newspaper Technology: Design workshop, 2012-2016.
North Dakota Press Assn.: Design workshop, 2010, “A License to Print Money,” 2012.
Catholic Press Assn.: Design workshop, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013.
New England Nesspaper and Press Assn.: Design seminar and workshops, 2012-2017.
Kentucky Press Assn.: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017.

His column on newspaper design appears regularly in Publishers’ Auxiliary, the
publication of the National Newspaper Assn. His column also appears in the bulletin of
the Southern Newspaper Publishers Assn. as well as newsletters of press organizations
throughout the U.S. and Canada. It is also distributed free to subscribers worldwide.

Anne Karolyi, managing editor of the Republican-American and Sunday Republican in Waterbury, Conn., has been urging local newsrooms to punch above their weight, strive for the best and adapt since her first cub reporting job. She’s been a beat and enterprise reporter, assignment editor, and under various titles the leader of three daily newsrooms. Tweet @annekarolyi or @annekarolyi on Instagram.

Matthew Kauffman, a 2007 Pulitzer Prize finalist in investigative reporting, worked for more than 30 years for the The Hartford Courant, where he helped lead the paper’s investigative and computer-assisted journalism. Matthew has received a Polk Award, the Selden Ring Award, the Worth Bingham Prize and the Heywood Broun Award; he was named a “Master Reporter” by the New England Society of Newspaper Editors.

Sarah Kess teaches Trauma Journalism at Boston University, in addition to working as the coordinator of BU’s department of journalism and as Assistant Director of the Power of Narrative conference. She was previously an editor with the Ochberg Society for Trauma Journalism.

Shannon Kinney is Founder and Client Success Officer at Dream Local Digital. Shannon has over 20 years of experience in the development of successful Internet products, online sales and marketing strategies. She has worked on the teams developing successful Internet brands such as cars.com, careerbuilder.com, and over 60 online media properties for newspapers all over the U.S. and Canada. Prior to that, she spent over 10 years in media sales and sales management in Maine. She is an experienced speaker, trainer, advisor and consultant, she has worked with small and large companies alike, and has served more than 40,000 small businesses in online marketing workshops. She has been recognized as a Woman to Watch by Maine Biz, and as a Local Digital Innovator by the Local Media Association.

Jason Kolnos has been a stalwart journalist in the Cape Cod Times newsroom for 15 years and cut his chops here at the Times when he was a Barnstable High School student in the late 1990s.

For most of his career at the Times, Jason has been a key multimedia storyteller, criss-crossing the Cape wielding a video camera to find compelling stories to share online and in print. Since May 2015, Kolnos has helmed the digital news operations and manages the Times robust social media presence.

A highlight of his career has been his work for 7 years as a videographer and editor of our daily webcast called CapeCast, alongside colleague and host/producer Eric Williams. This national and regional award-winning webcast featured everything interesting happening on Cape Cod in lively video vignettes.The CapeCast YouTube page has nearly 30 million total views.

Kolnos has also been the Times’ lead multimedia reporter for news videos, including breaking news and news features for many years. He’s created more than 1,000 news videos and contributed to various Times projects including series’ about fallen soldiers, the region’s drugs epidemic, the housing crisis, race relations on the Cape and how climate change affects the peninsula.

Jason is a 2003 graduate of Boston University/College of Communications and was a Knight Foundation fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. He previously worked at BU’s student newspaper The Daily Free Press and had an internship at The Independent in London. In his spare time, Jason tries to manage his addiction to the beach and Apple products.

Courtney A. Lamdin is the executive editor of three weekly newspapers in northwestern Vermont. She has worked as a general assignment reporter for the last nine years, covering everything from the mind-numbing complexities of tax increment financing to the thrilling life (and death) of a pair of wild turkeys said to be terrorizing school children. Lamdin has served on the Vermont Press Association board of directors for six years and was named a New England First Amendment Coalition investigative reporting fellow in 2015. She’s most proud of her four years covering a hazing scandal on the high school football team. Her reporting won her a first- place NENPA award in 2016, helped train Vermont teachers in child abuse reporting procedures and was featured in the ESPN documentary “Outside the Lines”. More recently, Lamdin’s work investigating the shady leadership of a youth football program led police to charge the team president with felony embezzlement. As much as it sounds like she hates football, Lamdin is actually a Patriots fan and likes going to games whenever her uncle will sell her his season tickets.

Kevin Moran is the executive editor of The Berkshire Eagle (NENPA’s 2018 Newspaper of the Year for Daily and Sunday), Bennington Banner (Vermont Press Association’s 2018 Newspaper of General Excellence), Brattleboro Reformer (runner-up, VPA’s 2018 Newspaper of General Excellence), Manchester Journal (NENPA’s 2018 Distinguished Weekly Newspaper of the Year), UpCountry Magazine  (NENPA’s 2018 Distinguished Specialty Newspaper of the Year) and related publications at New England Newspapers Inc. A native of the Berkshires, Moran has served as managing editor of The Berkshire Eagle, the Brattleboro Reformer and North Adams Transcript and as news editor of the York (Pa.) Dispatch/Sunday news. A past president of the New England Associated Press News Executives Association, he also has been a mentor for foreign journalists with Alfred Friendly Press Partners.