It’s election time for NCPA members
NCPA members are getting ready to elect new officers and directors at this year’s Winter Institute! During the NCPA/NCPS annual meeting, the nominating committee will present the following slate of candidates (more about each of them is below):

  • President: Hal Tanner III
  • Vice President: Les High
  • Three-year board term: Tammy Dunn
  • Three-year board term: Paul Mauney
  • Three-year board term: Richard Rinehart

Two current board members will be nominated and elected by the board to serve one-year terms as secretary-treasurer. Robyn Tomlin will become secretary-treasurer of the North Carolina Press Association. Regina Howard-Glaspie, currently NCPA secretary-treasurer, will be appointed for a term as secretary-treasurer of North Carolina Press Services. (The president nominates and the board elects the secretary-treasurers.)

All terms run from Aug. 1 through July 31.

Agreeing to stand for nomination for presidents of the Associated Dailies and the Community Newspapers Association are Betty Ramsey and Pat Taylor, respectively. Members of the two organizations will have separate elections for their presidents at meetings following the NCPA annual meeting; nominations from the floor are always welcome. Presidents of these associations serve a one-year term on the board in that capacity.

The annual meeting is scheduled as the second half of the legislative lunch/annual meeting on March 1 at the George Watts Hill Alumni Center on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus. We urge all members to attend – we expect to conduct a very important discussion of upcoming legislation and we need your input!
President:
Hal Tanner III has a long record of service to NCPA and NCPS. He currently serves as vice president. Before that he served as secretary-treasurer of NCPS, beginning in 2009. He is the publisher of The Goldsboro News-Argus. Before that he served as general manager of the paper for 10 years.
Hal Tanner III has been in the newspaper business for 24 years. After graduating from Wake Forest University, he moved to Greenville News-Piedmont in South Carolina to join the newspaper’s management training program. He was named vice president of the newspaper company in 1993. Among his other duties, he served as business manager and circulation director and, finally, assistant to the senior group president, which gave him responsibilities with seven newspapers owned by Gannett Corp. He was promoted to president and publisher of the Baxter Bulletin in Mountain Home, Ark., in 1997.
Tanner has served on the boards of many civic organizations throughout his career, including the United Way of Wayne County and the Wayne County Chamber of Commerce. Tanner also serves as a director of the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association.
Vice President:
Les High is currently on the NCPA/NCPS board of directors, where he serves as secretary/treasurer of NCPS. He is editor of The News Reporter, a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper in Whiteville, and publisher of The Pender Post in Burgaw. High's family has owned The News Reporter since 1938 and The Post since 2005. He began his career at the paper as photographer after graduating from the UNC School of Journalism in 1984. He won his first NCPA photography award at age 12. High is a past president of the N.C. Community Newspapers Association.
NCPS Secretary-Treasurer:

Robyn Tomlin has served on the NCPA board since 2010. She is executive editor of the StarNews in Wilmington.
She came to Wilmington in 2008 from Ocala, Fla., where she served as editor of the Star-Banner. She is a graduate of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She worked as a reporter, assistant metro editor and metro editor at the Asheville Citizen-Times before joining the New York Times Regional Media Group in 2002. Tomlin has served in leadership roles with several journalism organizations including the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors and the Alabama Press Association Foundation. She has twice served as a jurist for the Pulitzer Prizes.
NCPA Secretary-Treasurer:

Regina Howard-Glaspie is no stranger to the board. She currently serves as secretary-treasurer of Press Services, a position she has held since 2010. She is a past president of the Associated Dailies and had been elected to the board for a three-year term before taking on the secretary-treasurer’s role. Howard-Glaspie has been the circulation director of the News & Record of Greensboro since 2006. Previously she had been director of sales & marketing for the Media Management Center at Northwestern University.
Three-year board positions:
Tammy Dunn currently serves as the president of the Community Newspapers Association. She is editor/general manager of Montgomery Herald in Montgomery County. Dunn began her career as a photographer at the Herald in 1992 adding on reporting duties in 1995. In 1997 Womack Publishing purchased the Herald and named Dunn editor. Dunn is a member of the Press Association’s Member Services Committee and also serves on numerous boards in her community.
Paul Mauney is publisher of the Times-News of Burlington. He began his career in his hometown with the Shelby Star as a district manager in circulation. From there he served as circulation director at several other papers in North Carolina including The Dispatch of Henderson and Enquirer Journal in Monroe. After spending seven years with Morris Newspaper Corp. in middle Tennessee, he was promoted to general manager/publisher of The Review Appeal in Franklin, Tenn. He became general manager of Times-News in 1999, published the Porterville Recorder in California for two years and served as general manager of Freedom's newspaper division before returning home to North Carolina in his current role in 2008.
Richard Rinehart currently serves on the board, having been elected to fill a vacancy for one year in 2011. His the regional senior vice president of operations and strategic planning for The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer. He oversees printing/packaging operations and property management for McClatchy's Carolina newspapers along with other duties. He joined The News & Observer in 2005 as vice president, operations. He is a former member of the Newspaper Association of America Technology and Telecommunications Committee.
Associated Dailies of North Carolina President:

Betty Ramsey is president and publisher of the Tryon Daily Bulletin, Appointments magazine and related print and digital products in Tryon. She came to North Carolina in 2010. Previously she was the general manager and advertising director for The Tidewater News in Virginia and advertising director for San Diego Bride & Groom and San Diego This Week in California. She began her career at Media Links in Honolulu.

Members of the Associated Dailies vote on this position.
North Carolina Community Newspapers Association President:

Pat Taylor is a 33-year veteran of the newspaper business and is currently the advertising director of The Pilot in Southern Pines, N.C., where he also contributes occasional editorial columns and photography. He has served in nearly every position of management during tenures in Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Roanoke, VA, West Jefferson and Anniston, Ala. He's trained thousands of advertising sales reps around the country as a frequent teacher and lecturer. He has served on the NCPA board of directors twice, and chaired the advertising and operations committees at various times. Pat is also active with the Mid-Atlantic NAME and various local boards in Southern Pines.

Members of the Community Newspapers Association vote on this position.