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More ‘Murder’ in play for NENPA convention

By Sophie Cannon,
Bulletin Correspondent

Anyone who has worked in a newsroom any length of time has war stories they tell about memorable incidents there, and some even involve physical confrontations. But few if any recount murders.

Not so the tales that will be told at the New England Newspaper and Press Association’s winter convention.

Those who attended the NENPA’s winter convention last year might be familiar with the book, “Murder Ink,” which debuted there.

This year, the sequel, aptly named “Murder Ink 2,” will be officially launched Saturday, Feb. 25.

“Murder Ink 2” is similar to its predecessor in that it is a collection of 16 different murder stories, all unified around the theme of a newsroom in trouble. The stories also feature a New England angle, and so those attending the NENPA convention are an ideal audience for the news-driven stories.

“This is a general-interest murder series,” said George Geers, publisher of the book series and a veteran newspaperman. “Newspaper folks are most welcome to enjoy.”

Those who have read and enjoyed “Murder Ink” will be happy to know that some of the stories from the first book have continued where they left off in the sequel. With returning writers such as Brendan DuBois, sisters Karen and Roxanne Dent, Dan Rothman, Amy Ray and more, fans of the first book will be delighted to continue reading about murderous newsrooms in New England.

The second book follows the same concept as the first, Geers said.

“Some returning writers are continuing the settings they wrote about in ‘Murder Ink 2.’ Plus, new writers are being introduced,” he said

A press release by Plaidswede Publishing of Concord, N.H., publishing company of the “Murder Ink” series, describes the book as “a collection of hard-bitten newsroom crime fiction based in New England.”

The editor of the series, Dan Szczesny, is enchanted by the idea that the book is set in New England and even more excited to have the stories written by those native to the area.

“This region is so rich in newsroom lore, and who better to tell those stories than writers from the front lines of the news,” Szczesny wrote in the press release. “And who knows, some of these stories might be true!”

The New England Newspaper and Press Association’s winter convention is being held at the Boston Marriott Long Wharf hotel Friday, Feb. 24, and Saturday, Feb. 25.

The “Murder Ink 2” book launch lunch will be held from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 25.

2017-New-England-Newspaper-Convention-logo

At last year’s New England Newspaper and Press Association winter convention, Dan Szczesny, editor of “Murder Ink,” gestures to the audience before introducing the 10 authors who read excerpts from the book. To the right of Szczesny is George Geers, whose company, Plaidswede Publishing, published “Murder Ink” and this year’s sequel, “Murder Ink 2.”

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Design is a balance between the analytical and the creative

By Alison Berstein,
Bulletin Correspondent

Ed Henninger is no stranger to newspapers.

Henninger, an independent newspaper consultant for more than 25 years, is the director of Henninger Consulting, based in Rock Hill, S.C.

Henninger will speak on “Designing your niche publications” at the New England Newspaper and Press Association’s winter convention at the Boston Marriott Long Wharf hotel Friday, Feb. 24, and Saturday, Feb. 25.

To him, a newspaper and its readers have an important relationship – one that works both ways.

“Design is a two-sided relationship – how the paper approaches the reader, and how the reader approaches the paper,” he said.

Thinking like a news designer requires a balance of being analytical and creative, Henninger said.

“A right-brained person is someone who is more visual, more willing to explore the rules if not bend the rules. They’re more ready to try something new,” he said. “Left-brained people are word people, they’re writers, they’re editors. They know and can state and follow the rules.”

Henninger sees value in having both an understanding of the rules and the courage to stray from that foundation.

“Newspaper design is not about how it looks but how it works,” he said. “I know what the laws are; I know what the rules are of design.”

“What I’ve discovered is that when I’m working on the design of a page, I jump from one lobe to the other. That’s part of the fun of what I do,” he said. “The right brain is saying, ‘That’s really cool,’ the left brain is asking, ‘Does it work?’”

He urges big thinkers to have that flexibility between the intellectual left brain and the innovative right brain.

“Really great designers are people who can do that all the time because they can do something that just really works,” he said. “You ask them, ‘Why did you do that?’ and they’ll say, ‘I don’t know.’

“It fits all the rules, and yet it stretches those rules,” he said. “It’s really fascinating to get into that kind of talking and thinking.”

That fascination is critical to a news career, said Henninger, who differentiates a career from a job.

“You have to like it, don’t you?

“Designing newspapers is a profession, and that’s important to me. We need to think, act and design like a professional,” he said.

Henninger was introduced to news design through working with his college newspaper.

“I didn’t realize that I was falling in love with design at that time. It took me 40 years,” he said. “You have to like it, you have to love it.”

Henninger thinks that training is important to help this passion grow.

“A profession is what you want to get better at doing,” he said. “There are many people for whom news design is a job, and the reason it is is that they haven’t been given the kind of training that becomes a profession for them.”

He thinks that managers should see that their employees receive that pivotal training so that their employees will be capable of accomplishing the tasks expected of them.

“Too many managers ask their people to do design without a lick of training,” he said. “I don’t bear any ill will toward people who are put into that positon, I actually feel bad for them. And they’re doing it to their readers and to their publishers. They don’t see that they’re doing the wrong thing, and I don’t mean that in a negative way.”

Henninger outlined the various resources available to designers.

“Just like any skill, they need to learn,” he said. “There are webinars, there are all kinds of blogs. They could look at newspapers that do design well and emulate them. I didn’t say copy. Emulate.”

That notion – publications emulating, not copying, other publications – is an important one to Henninger, who has worked with publications throughout the country and held workshops in several countries.

Although the principles of design do not change from newspaper to newspaper, each publication should have its own look, he said.

“It would be a mistake … if every newspaper looked like every other newspaper,” he said. “The look of a paper will differ markedly from a paper right up the road. It has to do with locality, and what they’re trying to do for their readers.”

Henninger feels promising about the future of news design because of the advanced design capabilities available.

“We have better type,” he said. “We have better presses so we can push print. We have color on every page in some newspapers. We didn’t have that at first. Plus software’s made it possible to do all kinds of things.”

He also noted that publications are paying more attention to design.

“Even small-town papers are seeing that design matters, and they want to be better designers,” he said. “They’re seeing the papers and learning that they can’t just do things the way they’ve done it. I’m encouraged by that.”

Convention Speaker Henninger

2017-New-England-Newspaper-Convention-logo

‘Design is a two-sided relationship — how the paper approaches the reader, and how the reader approaches the paper.’

— Ed Henninger, Director
Henninger Consulting, Rock Hill, S.C.

‘Newspaper design is not about how it looks but how it works.’

— Ed Henninger

‘Too many managers ask their people to do design without a lick of training.’

— Ed Henninger

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Slow-learner, brick-by-brick approach to collecting facts

Jim Stasiowski, writing coach
Jim Stasiowski, writing coach

Jim Stasiowski, writing

Writing coach Jim Stasiowski welcomes your questions or comments.

Call him at
(775) 354-2872
or write to:
2499 Ivory Ann Drive
Sparks, NV 89436.

It took 12 tries by an equal number of people before someone finally succeeded in explaining to me how tax-increment financing (known as TIF) works.

Maybe 15 tries.

Even before I fully understood TIF, I knew it was a way that a government uses tax money to lure businesses.

To some, the fact it took me that many tries to grasp the intricacies of TIFs makes me look less than intelligent. But I think it makes me look good.

See, I kept trying to understand TIFs. I didn’t give up when I heard about it the first time, back in the 1980s, and told the explainer: “Huh?”

What you need to know about me: Whenever I have been interviewed for a job, and my prospective boss asks the standard, “So, what are your strengths?” I always say I’m a slow learner. I mean, slo—o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ow.

I don’t say that out of some reverse-psychology ploy or a brutally honest display of self-awareness; I say it with pride, because what I mean is that I pick up details the way a bricklayer builds a wall: one piece at a time. And if one doesn’t fit – continuing the bricklayer metaphor here – I will tear down what I’ve done and start over.

Throughout my life, I’ve been around fast learners, from my parents and siblings to classmates and colleagues.

Even my wife, Sharon, swiftly masters numbers and technology and puzzles and instructions and the layouts of cities. When we first got our home wired against break-ins, the security technician had barely started his script when he looked at a distracted me and said, “Sir, are you following this?”

I said, “No,” then pointed to Sharon and added, “but she is, and she’ll fill me in.”

For me as a journalist, slow learning has been an advantage. No matter how difficult the topic, I insist the source go over it until I can explain it to readers.

An example: On a Friday morning last winter, I covered a meeting at which an extremely intricate legislative proposal was discussed. Despite my copious notes, I really didn’t follow a lot of what was said.

After the meeting, I asked the most knowledgeable speaker – call him Roger – to fill in the details. Thinking I could get a story done for the next morning’s edition, I told him I needed an hour of his time.

Roger turned me down, but offered: “How about tomorrow?”

He was running errands on Saturday, so he called me on his cellphone. For four hours Roger helped me, brick-by-brick. It was painful to acknowledge how little I knew of the proposal, but he enjoyed playing tutor. After we talked, I made a few more calls – Reporting tip: In cold climates in the winter, many people are easily reachable on Saturdays – and I wrote a multi-source, nuanced story for the Sunday edition.

I know I should have found a way to get that story on Friday, put it online as soon as possible, then into the Saturday paper. But journalists get paid for more than just speed and clicks; in accepting a newspaper job, we also accept the responsibility of using our judgment. If I had written the story on Friday, it would have been superficial, like local-TV pieces in which, after a complex meeting, the reporter gets 40 seconds of on-camera comments from the mayor.

Yes, I could have found a different source on Friday for a lengthy interview. But here comes the judgment: In listening to the speakers at the meeting, I zeroed in on Roger as having both the broadest knowledge of the topic and the best reputation for candor.

It helped that my editor agreed with me: The story needed steeping, patience, consideration. In our modern media blizzard, speed is seductive but often shallow. A murder? Massive traffic accident? Trial outcome? OK, get it online and compete to be first (and, not incidentally, best).

But a topic with profound and long-term implications deserves time to develop.

I am not criticizing fast learners; I often wish I were one. And my self-assigned “slow learner” label hasn’t inhibited my ability to swiftly turn a slender news tip into a solid deadline-pressure story.

Still, it is an asset to know what I don’t know, like how to operate our home’s security system.

Now, back to TIFs: They started as a noble workaround to develop blighted areas, but shrewd business executives exploited simple-minded politicians lusting after credit for the holy grail called “economic development,” and today some TIFs are little more than corporate welfare, larding with tax money projects that companies would have done without such help.

When your local government considers a TIF, start at the bottom. First study the TIF laws, then methodically build your story brick-by-brick.

THE FINAL WORD: Although I usually reject new or trendy words, I do appreciate the utility of “workaround,” a noun the dictionary defines as “a method for overcoming an obstacle or bypassing a problem.”

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Inaugural Day ‘open letter’ – to the rest of us

Gene Policinski First Amendment
Gene Policinski First Amendment

Gene Policinski, inside the First Amendment

Gene Policinski is chief operating officer of the Newseum Institute and senior vice president of the Institute’s First Amendment Center. He can be reached at gpolicinski@newseum.org.

Follow him on Twitter:
@genefac

Sending an “open letter” to President Trump has been in vogue these days.

Social activists, business moguls, media chieftains and political leaders all have penned a multitude of them since the November election. Some offer advice, some raise alarms, some offer praise and some just convey insults.

All well and good – those exchanges and more are in the “free speech and free press” ethos protected by the First Amendment of speaking “truth to power” – even if the response from Trump more often than not has been to tar vigorously any unfavorable messages as “untruth.”

So this moment in history is just too ripe not to join in, but with a twist: Here’s my open letter about our core freedoms of speech, press, assembly, petition and religion … as a note not to the new commander in chief, but to the rest of us — “We, The People.”

For those who reveled in Trump’s oath of office, take a moment to consider that the freedoms of speech and press that he seems to be targeting were in no small way vital to a campaign rooted in reaching out to those who felt marginalized, ignored or even betrayed by both major parties.

Trump’s ongoing “fireside tweets” are both new to American politics and an echo of FDR’s similar mastery of the new medium of his era, radio, to speak directly to voters. He and we need to keep in mind that loosening libel laws to make it easier to sue a reporter also will make it easier to mount a legal challenge to all of us – including Trump – over our online comments.

And then there’s Trump’s biting, emotional indictments of the news media. More than 60 news and free press organizations earlier this week sent a multi-page note to the president and Vice President Pence, asking for a meeting to discuss transparency and press access to their administration.

We, the people, should endorse that call to coverage by our independent “watchdogs on government.” In turn, journalists must take action to reverse a widespread view – 74 percent in the latest State of the First Amendment survey – that the news media is failing to live up to its responsibility to be accurate and unbiased in news reports or to, at the least, be transparent in declaring bias.

Holding government accountable in public for how public policy is made, and how public money is spent, would seem to be a nonpartisan objective on which we can all agree. In that same State of the First Amendment survey, 71 percent of us said that was the case.

We will need to keep in mind as a nation that discussion, dissent, disagreement and debate are the hallmarks of a strong and open system of self-governance – and provide the means for self-correction when this nation goes astray. Let’s consider how rare it is in the world to be able to assemble peaceably without fear of government persecution or prosecution, and to petition the government for change.

In like manner, there might be those who decried the “Women’s March” that followed the Inaugural Parade by one day as divisive. But what a grand example to other nations: Hundreds of thousands of Americans on one day, celebrating the peaceful transition of national power after a heated, closely contested election — only to be followed a single day later, in the same space, by hundreds of thousands of Americans protesting the political particulars of that transfer.

And finally, there’s certainly every reason to fear domestic and international terrorists. But we need to remember that targeting others solely because of their Muslim religious faith not only violates our nation’s unique commitment to respecting all faiths, but resurrects images of a time when unjustified wartime fear and disgraceful ethnic bias led us to intern Japanese Americans at the start if World War II.

More than ever, as we enter this new “Era of Trump,” we should heed the call to duty as citizens expressed in the observation by my late colleague John Seigenthaler that our First Amendment freedoms “are never safe, never secure, but always in the process of being made safe and secure.”

We might disagree – and often do – on how those five core freedoms of the First Amendment apply to any given set of facts.

But we should all stand behind them against any attempt to limit, weaken or ignore them on the basis of the variable political winds, the power of fear – or even the impact of the occasional presidential tweet.

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Stan Simpson

Stan Simpson
Stan Simpson

Stan Simpson has been named the Robert C. Vance Endowed Chair in Journalism and Mass Communications at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain as of Jan. 13. Simpson is known for “The Stan Simpson Show” on Hartford-based Fox 61 television station and his weekly columns on urban issues for The Hartford Courant. He was named New England Journalist of the Year by the Connecticut Society for Professional Journalists and the New England Association of Black Journalists. He also was honored as Journalist of the Year by the Connecticut Small Business Administration. Simpson will teach one class each in the spring and fall semesters this year.

The Transitions were written, at least in part, from published reports by Bulletin correspondents Sophie Cannon, Jenna Ciccotelli, Peyton Luxford and Michael Mattson, undergraduate students at Northeastern University.

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Feb 2017 Massachusetts Transitions

Peter Meyer

Peter Meyer, regional vice president for GateHouse Media and president and publisher for the company on Cape Cod and Massachusetts’ South Coast, will take on additional responsibilities for GateHouse Media New England. His responsibilities will extend to publications across Massachusetts, including those on Cape Cod and in New Bedford, Worcester, Fall River, Taunton, Quincy, Brockton and Milford, along with Portsmouth, N.H., and the publishing company’s MetroWest division. He will also assist with GateHouse Media’s weekly publications across Eastern Massachusetts. Most recently, in 2015, Meyer was named regional vice president for GateHouse Media. After moving to Cape Cod in 1986, Meyer joined the Cape Cod Times as production director, later serving as general manager and assistant to the publisher. He was promoted to publisher and president in 2003, and in 2008 added oversight of GateHouse’s South Coast Media Group, including The Standard-Times of New Bedford. Before joining the Cape Cod Times, Meyer was employed with Dow Jones & Company Inc. at the Wall Street Journal publishing centers in Massachusetts, Maryland, Pennsylvania and California. GateHouse Media New England publishes six dailies, 98 weeklies, 164 Wicked Local websites and other specialty publications.

Rick Holmes

Rick Holmes retired Jan. 29 from the MetroWest Daily News of Framingham after 37 years in journalism. He most recently has been opinion editor for 22 years and Massachusetts political editor for the MetroWest Daily News. He also has been a blogger for WickedLocal.com and has been opinion editor and wrote a column for the Milford Daily News, a sister newspaper. He began his journalism career at a local newspaper in Tennessee, where he wrote editorials and columns, covered news, laid out pages and typed obituaries, At the MetroWest Daily News, previously called the Middlesex News, which he joined in the mid-1980s, Holmes also has been a copy editor, metro editor, and managing editor. Holmes is planning to continue writing a weekly column for the MetroWest Daily News.

Deborah Boucher Stetson, associate editor of the Barnstable Patriot, has been promoted to editor. Stetson has done editing and reporting for the Cape Codder of Orleans, and has been a freelance writer for newspapers, magazines and specialty publications. She joined the Patriot in July 2015 as associate editor. She wrote stories, editorials and a weekly column before becoming editor. Stetson replaces Rohma Abbas, who left in December to become editor at Workable, a Boston recruiting company.

The Transitions were written, at least in part, from published reports by Bulletin correspondents Sophie Cannon, Jenna Ciccotelli, Peyton Luxford and Michael Mattson, undergraduate students at Northeastern University.

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Gareth Henderson

Gareth Henderson
Gareth Henderson

Gareth Henderson has been appointed editor of The Vermont Standard of Woodstock. Henderson began his career with the Vermont Standard as a freelancer while he was in college and began there full-time in 2005 as a reporter. He later became assistant editor. He left the Vermont Standard in 2011 and was business editor at the Rutland Herald for three years.

The Transitions were written, at least in part, from published reports by Bulletin correspondents Sophie Cannon, Jenna Ciccotelli, Peyton Luxford and Michael Mattson, undergraduate students at Northeastern University.

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Industry News – Feb 2017

Newspaper-industry-news

Headliners

Obituaries

Transitions

Briefs

Awards and Honors

Advertising News

Advice

Training

Mobile/Online News

Social Media News

Legal Briefs

Industry News

• GateHouse buys 5 Ohio dailies, weeklies, niche pubs
• Dallas daily lays off 25, oursources to GateHouse
• A lament for losses in local news, and their effects
• Publishers not sold on distributed content $$ benefits
• Getting coverage out from under the ‘coastal bubbles’
• A road map to how SecureDrop is used for leaks
• Should injury dangers change football coverage?
• Roy Peter Clark’s formula for a ‘saner news experience’

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eBulletin Obituaries

William B. Rotch

Former top executive at N.H.’s Cabinet Press Inc. newspaper group
William B. Rotch of Peterborough, N.H., former editor and publisher of the Milford, N.H.-based Cabinet Press Inc. newspaper company that his family owned, died Feb. 1 at RiverMead Retirement Community in Peterborough. He was 100, and formerly was a longtime resident of Milford, N.H.

After graduating from Dartmouth College, Rotch began his career as editor and publisher of The Cabinet of Milford and the then-Wilton (N.H.) Journal, which had been owned by his family for five generations. After a Navy stint in World War II, Rotch returned to Milford to resume his position at the Cabinet.

He also wrote extensively for the newspaper, covering news and writing an editorial column 52 times a year for almost 50 years. He also wrote a weekly column of personal reflections – first titled Letter from the Editor and later titled Letter from the Publisher – until 2008, when he was 92.

Rotch was a former president of the New Hampshire Press Association. He also co-founded and was president of the New England Weekly Press Association, later named the New England Press Association and now part of the New England Newspaper and Press Association. He was inducted into the New England Newspaper Hall of Fame in 2001.

In October 1956, Rotch was invited by the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission to visit the state. The purpose of the visit was “to give representatives of the northern ‘grassroots’ press a true picture of Mississippi …,” he wrote. The resulting stories, published soon after in the Cabinet, foreshadowed the civil rights movement that would emerge in full force a few years later.

Rotch was an active member of the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors. In 1989, he received the group’s Eugene Cervi Award, which recognizes newspaper editors who embody the conviction that “good journalism begets good government.”

In 2007, The Telegraph of Nashua, N.H., which purchased Cabinet Press in 2013, honored Rotch, with Daniel Webster and other influential New Hampshire residents, in a story titled “175: The people who made a difference.”

He leaves four children, Peter, Elizabeth, John, and Martha, who with her husband, Frank, bought Cabinet Press in 1994; 12 grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren.

Helen (Woodman) Harrington

Helen (Woodman) Harrington, 74, of North Conway, N.H., and formerly of Medford, Mass., died Jan. 23 in her home.

Harrington began her career at the New England News Service in 1962 before serving in the press office of the Peace Corps in Washington, D.C., beginning in 1972.

She then went on to be the owner of the State House News Service in Boston.

She leaves two siblings, Wendell and Roy, and nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews.

Alfred K. ‘Buddy’ Driscoll

Alfred K. “Buddy” Driscoll, 88, formerly of Weymouth and Dorchester, Mass., died Jan. 29 at the Wingate at Silver Lake Nursing Facility in Kingston, Mass.

Both before and after his service in the Korean War, Driscoll was employed at the former Boston Herald Traveler. He went on to be employed at The Boston Globe.

He was a member of the Mailers Union until he retired in 1991.

Driscoll leaves many nieces and nephews and great-nieces and great-nephews.

Ann C. (Sprague) Bruce

Ann C. (Sprague) Bruce, 78, of Walpole, Mass., died Jan. 26 in the Ellis Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Norwood, Mass.

Ann C. Bruce was business manager at the Walpole Times beginning in 1980, before moving on in 1988 to The Pilot, the newspaper of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. She retired from the Pilot in 2003.

She was a member of Walpole’s Fiscal Committee and secretary of Walpole’s Democratic Town Committee.

She leaves four children, William, Daniel, James and Suzanne; 10 grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; four siblings.

Leo L. Chabot

Leo L. Chabot, 80, formerly of North Andover, Mass., died Jan. 23 of natural causes.

During the 1960s, Chabot was a reporter and photographer for The Courier-Gazette of Rockland and the Bangor Daily News, both in Maine. He also was a television correspondent for WCSH-TV, based in Portland, Maine, covering Midcoast Maine. In the 1970s, he was chief photographer for the Charleston (W.V.) Gazette.

Chabot was employed at The Eagle Tribune of North Andover for 22 years. He was involved in two Pulitzer Prize-winning teams there, as Sunday editor in 1988 and as wire editor in 2003.

Chabot was a member of the North Andover Zoning Task Force and the North Andover Historical Commission.

He leaves his wife, Connie; five children, Jacques, Marc, Michelle, Aimee and Nicole; eight grandchildren.

Gloria Smith Russell

Gloria Smith Russell, 90, of Westerly, R.I., died Jan. 28 at the Philip Hulitar Hospice Center in Providence, R.I.

In 1966, she became the first female reporter for The Westerly Sun.

Before that, Russell hosted a call-in radio program, “Party line with Gloria,” on WERI-AM in Westerly.

She also was employed at the then-Groton (Conn.) News and, later, the Norwich (Conn.) Bulletin. She also was a correspondent for The Providence (R.I.) Journal.

Stories of Russell’s in the Westerly Sun made up her two published works, “Reminiscing” and “Reminiscing II.”

Russell was inducted into the Rhode Island Press Association Hall of Fame in 2003 for her work at two radio stations and four newspapers during 40 years in the media..

Russell leaves a daughter, Lea; five grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren; two great-great-grandchildren.

Dezsoe ‘Dezi’ Rottler

Dezsoe “Dezi” Rottler, 89, of South Burlington, Vt., died Jan. 29. at the McClure Miller VNA Respite House in Colchester, Vt.

He had been a photographer in the Army. After he returned to Burlington, Vt., in 1957, he was a freelance photographer until 1959 when he became a photographer for The Burlington Free Press. He retired in 1990.

He leaves two children, Maria and Christopher; four grandchildren, Isabella, Cal, Jason and Jennifer; five great-grandchildren; and family members in Holland.

Robert Marshall Lord

Robert Marshall Lord, 83, of South Portland, Maine, former owner of two newspapers in Maine, died Jan. 25 at his home.

Lord began his career in journalism as a photographer for The Haverhill (Mass.) Gazette.

He later was a photographer and reporter for the Lynn (Mass.) Daily Item and the now-defunct Haverhill Journal, and editor of the former Merrimack Valley Advertiser of Tewksbury, Mass. He also contributed frequently to The Boston Globe as a freelancer.

He went on to become editor of The Griffin Report of Duxbury, Mass., a New England food trade newspaper, and was founding editor of the company’s advertising industry publication, Ad East.

After moving to Dexter, Maine, in 1974, Lord and his wife, Jane, bought The Eastern Gazette and the now-defunct Moosehead Gazette newspapers of Dexter. During that time, he received multiple Maine and national journalism awards for photography and writing.

After merging and eventually selling the papers, he continued to write fiction, memoirs and screenplays.

He leaves his wife, Jane; their daughter, Sarah; three children from a previous marriage, Susan, Stephen and Andrew; several grandchildren, nieces and nephews; a sister.

Elizabeth Bues Wittemann

Elizabeth “Betsy” Bues Wittemann, 75, of Glastonbury, Conn., died Jan. 30 at the University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora.

In Wittemann’s early career in journalism, she was a reporter in Rochester, N.Y.

She then became a member of the editorial staff at the former Hartford (Conn.) Times.

Wittemann later became head of the public relations department at Adams, Rickard & Mason, an advertising agency in Glastonbury.

She also wrote travel guides about New England, including “Daytripping and Dining in New England;” “Waterside Escapes: Great Getaways by Lake, River and Sea;” and the “Fireside Guide to New England Inns and Restaurants,” published by Wood Pond Press in the 1980s and 1990s. Witteman wrote travel features for The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and Birmingham, Ala.-based Coastal Living, among other publications.

She was a lifestyle reporter for several years for the Journal Inquirer of Manchester, Conn.

Witteman was a part-time tutor in the writing center at Manchester Community College in recent years. She also had been a member of writing groups.

She leaves two children, Audrey and Charles; two grandchildren, Claire and Charles; a brother, Lawrence.

Angelo L. Tirro

Angelo L. Tirro, 100, a lifelong resident of Revere, Mass., died Jan. 21 at the Soldiers’ Home in Chelsea, Mass., after a lengthy illness.

Tirro was a commercial artist for 35 years at The Boston Globe. He was a member of the Quarter Century Club at the Globe. He retired in 1982.

Tirro leaves two children, Robert and Donna; six grandchildren, Paul, Allison, Robert Jr., Ann, Dina and Paula; several great-grandchildren; a brother.

Margaret Guyer

Margaret Guyer, 92, who lived on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, died Jan. 24.

She was a secretary at the Cape Codder of Orleans, Mass. She was also editor of a church newspaper.

She leaves four children; five grandchildren; five great-grandchildren.

Robert Emmett Carroll

Robert Emmett Carroll, 80, of Westport, Mass., died Jan. 19.

He was a correspondent for The Providence (R.I.) Journal and the former Washington (D.C.) Star.

Carroll had been a member of the Westport Beach Committee and the Westport School Committee.

Carroll leaves his wife, Nance; four children, Robert, Matthew, Alicia and Catherine; eight grandchildren.

Eileen G. Quinn

Eileen G. Quinn, 93, of Dalton, Mass., died Feb. 2 at Albany (N.Y.) Medical Center .

For many years, she was the Dalton and Hilltown correspondent for the then-Springfield (Mass.) Union, and wrote numerous Hilltown stories for The Berkshire Eagle of Pittsfield, Mass.

Quinn was a member of Dalton’s Democratic Committee for many years.

She leaves a son, Franklin “Jay,” and daughter-in-law, Karen, and eight nieces and nephews.

William J. ‘Bill’ Kilroy Jr.

William J. “Bill” Kilroy Jr., 85, of Centerville, Mass., died Jan. 21.

Kilroy was employed at the Chelsea (Mass.) Evening Record.

He later was director of publications and public relations for the Massachusetts Teachers Association. Beginning in 1972, Kilroy was employed at the National Education Association, and spent 30 years there, including in communications.

Kilroy leaves four children: Jane, Mary, Patricia and Christopher; eight granchildren; a great-grandchild; a brother.

John J. Daly Jr.

John J. Daly Jr., 85, of Stuart, Fla., died Jan. 22 at the Treasure Coast Hospice House in Stuart, Fla.

At the National Catholic News Service in Washington, D.C., he reported on Roman Catholic education programs as well as White House and congressional activities before returning to his native Connecticut. In Hartford, Conn., he was news editor of the Catholic Transcript, the newspaper of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford.

He was assistant vice president of corporate communications at the Hartford Financial Services group before his retirement in 1995 and subsequent move to Florida.

Daly leaves his wife, Mary; three sons, John, Thomas and Patrick; a daughter, Mary Elizabeth; seven grandchildren; two step-grandchildren.

The obituaries were written, at least in part, from published reports by Bulletin correspondents Sophie Cannon, Joseph Dussault, Nico Hall, Bailey Knecht, Joshua Leaston, Peyton Luxford, Michael Mattson, Eloni Porcher and Mohammed Razzaque, undergraduate students at Northeastern University.

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Marcia Green

Marcia Green

The Valley Breeze

Few people have done more for the cause of keeping great local journalism alive in Rhode Island than Marcia Green, the chief editor at The Valley Breeze Newspapers. Marcia has been the editor at The Breeze since its founding and has been instrumental in its success for the past 22 years, and she has had a deep impact on the communities she has covered. She is dedicated to uncovering the stories that matter to people, and finding them answers when they feel they have nowhere else to turn. She is the inspiration behind what The Breeze has been about these two decades, giving readers a voice, holding those in charge accountable, bringing about change, and sharing the good that the people of Rhode Island have to offer.

New England Newspaper Hall of Fame Members

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