WEST LEBANON — Newspapers of New England Inc., the family-owned parent company of the Valley News, announced a series of leadership changes on Thursday.
Current NNE president and CEO Aaron Julien will move into the role of chairman. He replaces longtime NNE chairman John Kuhns, of Etna, who is retiring. Chuck Goodrich will assume Julien’s role.
Meanwhile, Dan McClory is being promoted from chief financial officer to chief operating officer of NNE. McClory will maintain his role as publisher of the Valley News.
“By adjusting responsibilities and spreading the work out, we can spend more time and attention on finding new funding solutions while also managing daily operations — without increasing management staffing,” Julien wrote to employees in a companywide message. ”This past year has been our toughest ever, but the fact is we’re in good shape thanks to your hard work, as well as the difficult choices we made to ensure our long-term success.”
Goodrich has spent 35 years in the newspaper industry, primarily at dailies and weeklies in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. He served as president and CEO for a division of Community Newspaper Co. in Massachusetts and was a longtime publisher and senior executive for its successor companies. “I’m excited to join the talented team at NNE and look forward to building on what has been accomplished,” Goodrich said.
Julien said the leadership changes will be effective on June 1.
On Friday, McClory told Valley News staff that longtime advertising director Rich Wallace was also being promoted to general manager at the paper, working with the production staff who are based at the company’s commercial printing facility in Penacook, N.H., and eventually taking over supervision of the circulation department in West Lebanon. Wallace will also retain his responsibilities as advertising director.
Wallace, who grew up in Lebanon, has worked at the paper since 1987.
“This is partially due to the change in my duties but also an acknowledgment of what Rich has been doing for some time,” McClory said of Wallace’s promotion.
Newspapers of New England, in operation since 1888, is the parent company for dailies including the Valley News in West Lebanon, the Concord Monitor, the Daily Hampshire Gazette (Northampton, Mass.), the Greenfield (Mass.) Recorder and the Athol (Mass.) Daily News.
In addition, NNE publishes the twice-weekly Monadnock Ledger-Transcript (Peterborough, N.H.), the weekly Amherst (Mass.) Bulletin and various specialty publications.