LAKE COUNTY (MNG) — Lake County Publishing has a new publisher after Gary Dickson resigned his post effective Friday.
“This is an emotional time for me. My mother passed away three months ago, my father is very ill and I”m leaving friends and co-workers who mean a great deal to me. But, I believe going to Kansas to help my father through his challenge is the right thing to do,” Dickson said.
Dickson, 60, had spent more than 30 years in the newspaper business before being hired as publisher of Lake County Publishing in April 2008.
“I have grown to love Lake County and, who knows, I might return here and settle down. I have moved around quite a lot during my newspaper career and this wouldn”t be a bad place to retire,” Dickson said.
Kevin McConnell, who began as publisher of The Ukiah Daily Journal in 2000, will now serve as group publisher of the Lake County and central Mendocino County newspapers in California.
“The publisher doesn”t do the work, it”s the staff and all the reporters and the salespeople and the carriers and so forth. Luckily this is a really nice operation so it”s really not going to be hard for me to walk into Gary”s shoes because he”s been doing such a great job all along,” McConnell said.
McConnell will be responsible for developing the various properties into social and new media centers for each respective community, while overseeing two daily newspapers, several weeklies, direct mail operations and the group”s printing and production facility in Lakeport.
“There is a huge shift toward digital with smartphones and the growth of online and everything that we, as individual properties, have been really struggling with the last couple years trying to deal with. And I think now”s our time,” he said.
McConnell, 49, got his taste for publishing after high school, while working for his father”s publishing company, Madison Square Press, in New York City. In 1985, he returned to school and graduated from Palm Beach Community College in 1988, where he had been editor of the college newspaper.
In 1990, McConnell joined the U.S. Navy. He was stationed in Sardinia, Italy for his two years of service and was a Quartermaster in the navigation department on the U.S.S. Orion.
After McConnell finished his service commitment, he opened his own newspaper with the financial help of his family. The short-lived venture produced a free weekly broadsheet serving Boynton Beach, Fla.
In 1994, McConnell went to work for the Stuart News as composing supervisor and acting production director.
McConnell was called to join the Alameda Newspaper Group and moved to Pleasanton in 1995, soon working his way up to news director for the newspaper group. Working under Executive Editor Nancy Conway, he managed 60 news center personnel and cleared five newspapers to press daily.
In 2000, McConnell moved into the publisher position at The Ukiah Daily Journal.
McConnell said he looks forward to becoming more familiar with Lake County. “I”m an avid sailor and I”m looking forward to getting out on the lake,” he said.
