Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. (ONI) appoints new general manager at Santa Cruz Sentinel

CAMPBELL HALL, N.Y. -- Molly Evans, advertising director for the Cape Cod Times in Massachusetts, will become general manager of the Santa Cruz Sentinel in California at the start of 2005. She will become president and publisher of the paper in early 2006 when Publisher Dave Regan retires.

The announcement was made today in Santa Cruz by John P. Kinney, senior vice president of Ottaway Newspapers, Inc., the parent company of both papers.

“I am very excited by the prospect of working in Santa Cruz County, a community rich with cultural diversity,” Evans said. “The opportunities are numerous. While I appreciate that every newspaper or market has its challenges, I anticipate being able to meet those with the help of the talented staff members who obviously have maximized their resources to put out an impressive newspaper and a good website.”

Regan, publisher since 1991, welcomed Evans during a staff meeting today.

“I know that Molly Evans will love living in Santa Cruz, as I have for more than two decades, and that the Sentinel will prosper under her leadership.”

Kinney, a former Ottaway publisher, said this year of transition will offer the new publisher and the community a chance to get to know each other.

“At Cape Cod and at the other papers where she worked, Molly has displayed a talent for making improvements and serving the readers and advertisers,” Kinney said. “That’s why we chose her for this important job. And I can think of no one more qualified as a mentor than Dave Regan, with his broad range of newspaper experience and deep appreciation for the unique qualities of Santa Cruz.”

Evans, 46, has been advertising director at the Times since 1998. In addition to managing the sales staff, she has been instrumental in developing Internet sales strategy and launching a new glossy lifestyle magazine, Cape Cod View, which started this fall.

After a dozen years in classified advertising, both in sales and management, she worked as an advertising and marketing director the past 11 years. This is her second experience in California, following an advertising job at the Bakersfield Californian. In addition, she worked at papers in Connecticut, Tennessee and Maine before coming to Massachusetts.

She has a bachelor’s degree in English from Eastern Connecticut State University and is on the board of the Hyannis (MA) Main Street Business Improvement District and Children’s Cove, an agency that serves children and their families who have been victims of abuse. While on the Cape she also delivered Meals on Wheels.

Her husband of 17 years, Tom Evans, and son, Alexander, an 11-year-old sixth grader, will be relocating to Santa Cruz early in 2005.

Regan, 63, who will retire in early 2006, came to the Sentinel as general manager in 1983. He started his career with Ottaway in 1964 at the Danbury News-Times in Connecticut as a printer. He joined the staff of the company’s largest paper, the Times Herald-Record in Middletown, N.Y., and served as production coordinator, production manager, assistant to the publisher and assistant general manager before coming to California.

In Santa Cruz, he has been president of United Way, the Santa Cruz County Business Council, the board of the University of California Santa Cruz Foundation, the American Cancer Society and the Lions.

He and his wife, Lynn, have been married for 42 years. Their four children and five grandchildren all live in Santa Cruz.

Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. is the community newspaper subsidiary of Dow Jones & Company. In addition to the Santa Cruz Sentinel and Cape Cod Times, Ottaway publishes 13 other daily newspapers, 18 weeklies and numerous specialty publications and web sites in nine states. The parent company, Dow Jones & Company, publishes The Wall Street Journal and its international and online editions, Barron’s magazine, Dow Jones Newswires and Dow Jones Indexes. Dow Jones is also co-owner with Reuters Group of Factiva, with Hearst of SmartMoney and with NBC of CNBC television operations in Asia and Europe. Dow Jones also provides news content to CNBC and radio stations in the U.S.

For information contact:

David Regan, publisher
Santa Cruz Sentinel
831-423-4242