Leadership changes

Dannie Oliveaux, The Pittsburg Gazette and The Steel Country Bee
PITTSBURG –Dannie Oliveaux has assumed the role of editor and publisher of The Pittsburg Gazette and The Steel Country Bee in Daingerfield. 
Oliveaux replaces Debbie Knox, who retired. 
“I’m excited about my new position as editor and publisher of both newspapers and returning closer to home,” Oliveaux said. 
The 59-year-old veteran journalist worked in Washington and Oregon from July 1999 to April 2015. While in Washington, he served as sports editor of Tacoma Weekly, editor of The Gazette in Orting, sports editor of the Seaside (Ore.) Signal, and editor of the Port Orchard (Wash.) Independent. 
In 2015, the Independent captured first place in the general excellence contest among large weeklies in the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association’s Better Newspaper Contest, along with winning first place for news and sports photography. 
Before coming to Pittsburg, Oliveaux worked for Gatehouse Media since August 2015, first as sports editor at the Miami (Okla.) News-Record, and then was named editor of the Neosho (Mo.) Daily News. 
The veteran journalist is native of Hebert, La., and attended Mangham High School. 
Oliveaux attended the University of Louisiana-Monroe and majored in advertising design and photography. 
He and his wife, Gail, made their home in Pittsburg on Feb. 1.
The newspapers are part of Moser Community Media.

John Dilmorre, Northeast Texas Publishing, LP
ATLANTA – Northeast Texas Publishing, LP, has named John Dilmore editor and publisher of the Atlanta Citizens Journal and the Cass County Sun. 
Dilmore replaces Randy Grider, who is leaving the newspapers to take advantage of an opportunity in his native Alabama. 
“It was a tough decision to leave, but I was presented with a unique offer to oversee an arts and cultural center of which I had been on the advisory board prior to moving here,” Grider said.
“I’m excited about this opportunity, and looking forward to getting to know the local communities,” Dilmore said. “There’s no better way of doing that than telling the stories of the people and places that make these towns and Cass County unique.” 
Dilmore said that in addition to the focus on local news coverage, the staffs of the two newspapers will continue to offer businesses comprehensive advertising strategies for reaching the market. 
Dilmore is the former editor and publisher of the Claremore Daily Progress in Claremore, Okla. He has also served as editor and general manager of the Andrews County News and publisher of the Alpine Avalanche. 
He is also former publisher and advertising manager of the Siloam Springs Herald-Leader in Siloam Springs, Ark. and former opinion page editor of the Benton County Daily Record in Bentonville, Ark. He also worked as editor and publisher of community-focused publications in Alabama and Mississippi. 
He has won numerous awards for column and editorial writing. 
He is a 1995 graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi with a degree in journalism. He and his wife Jennifer will live in Atlanta.

Dwayne V. Bivona, Corpus Christi Caller Times
CORPUS CHRISTI – Dwayne V. Bivona, former president of the Times Record News in Wichita Falls, took over as president of the Corpus Christi Caller-Times in February, following the retirement of Libby Averyt.
The Times Record News and the Caller-Times are both part of The USA Today Network. The announcement was made to Caller-Times employees during a staff meeting by Gannett regional president Terry Horne. 
Averyt said Bivona is a good fit for the position.
In addition to serving as president of the Caller-Times, Bivona’s role includes overseeing Gannett’s operations in Abilene, San Angelo and Wichita Falls. 
President of the Times Record News since 2010, Bivona has spent three decades in the industry with a focus on circulation, operations, advertising and sales.
Before rising to president of the Wichita Falls newspaper, he spent five years as circulation director and advertising accounts manager at the Evansville Courier Company in Indiana. 
Other roles were at The Daily Independent in Ashland, Kentucky, The Observer-Dispatch in Utica, New York and The Ithaca Journal, also in New York.
He received a bachelor’s degree in communications from Ithaca College and an associate’s degree in journalism from Morrisville College.
Bivona said he admired the quality of journalism produced by the Caller-Times, highlighting the newspaper’s coverage of domestic violence, recent water crises and the Harbor Bridge replacement project.
He also acknowledged the challenges of transitioning to Gannett ownership. 
“I look at what Gannett is doing, moving our business to where the audience is,” Bivona said. 
“It’s painful at times, and that transition has you leaving your comfort zone. But you have to go where that audience is.
“The work you do really matters.”
Bivona and his wife, Karen, have three children. They will be making their home in Corpus Christi.

Grant Moise, A.H. Belo Corporation, parent of The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS — Grant Moise, a key architect of a revenue-boosting strategy for A.H. Belo Corporation, parent of The Dallas Morning News, has been named executive vice president of the parent company and general manager of The News.
The promotion makes Moise, 41, second in command at the paper behind Jim Moroney, the newspaper’s publisher and chief executive.
Both executives spoke of the change, which is effective immediately, as part of the company’s succession planning, though Moroney said there is “no timetable” for him to step down.
Moise, who joined The News in 2004 and later briefly worked for another company, had been senior vice president of business development and niche products since September 2013. In that role, he oversaw A.H. Belo’s purchase or creation of six companies in five years — all designed to help the company generate new revenue to counter a drop in print revenue, which has been declining industrywide.
He now has responsibility for the sales department, marketing, IT, production and distribution of the print edition.
The newsroom, led by editor Mike Wilson, will “co-report to Grant and me,” Moroney said.
Moroney, 60, said part of his responsibility as CEO is to position the company for a future change in leadership.
“So in concert with our board, I have been working to put Grant in a position where he could have an opportunity to take on more responsibility and at least potentially be a succession candidate when and if that arises,” Moroney said.
Moise has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Kansas and an MBA in marketing and marketing management from Texas Christian University.
Since returning to A.H. Belo in 2008, Moise said, much of his focus has been on bolstering the company’s efforts to make money beyond newspaper advertising revenue, which has been declining for more than a decade.
The company purchased or created companies, including Speakeasy, CrowdSource and DMV, that are largely devoted to marketing. Their revenues are still small compared with print revenue, but have been growing rapidly.
In its last quarterly financial statement, A.H. Belo reported that digital and marketing services revenue of $14 million made up 36.6 percent of the company’s total advertising and marketing services revenue. It was 30.1 percent a year ago.
“The new structure really ... allows us to be more cohesive to where our mergers and acquisition strategy, our revenue diversification strategy, will naturally get closer alignment to the rest of the business as a result of me being more closely involved,” Moise said.
“There is still a true desire for our company to feel like it’s one, not a sum of the parts,” he added.  “I think that Jim and I both feel strongly that the change is going to help us strengthen that just by more tightly aligning things from a mission and vision standpoint.
“The newsroom is bringing in such a large audience. Part of what I’m interested in doing is taking this large audience that our journalism is able to bring into our company and providing our marketers more unique access to those audiences, but not to influence our journalism.”

Joani Dittrich, Star Local Media
PLANO – Joani Dittrich has joined Star Local Media as its new national/major account manager, announced Scott Wright, CEO and publisher.
“Joani and I have worked together in St. Louis, Detroit and now here once again,” Wright said. “I’m happy to have her bring such experience and expertise to our leadership team. Without question, this is a significant hire for our corporation now and in the long term.” 
Dittrich brings more than 30 years of advertising and marketing expertise back to the Dallas area. 
Her background includes experience in multimedia consulting ad agency work. She has served in markets across the U.S., including Los Angeles, Detroit, Dallas, Philadelphia and St. Louis. 
Star Local Media is based in Plano and owns 14 community newspapers and websites.