By Staff
NILES - Douglas Phares will become publisher of the Sandusky (Ohio) Register effective Jan. 31, 2005, announced Dave Rau, CEO of Sandusky Newspapers Inc.
Phares, 38, had been the president of Leader Publications, based in Niles, and publisher of the Niles Daily Star, Dowagiac Daily News, Cassopolis Vigilant, Edwardsburg Argus and the Leader until stepping down in September.
A native of Chicago, Phares had been with Leader Publications since 1996. He began his newspaper career in the advertising department of the Elgin (Ill.) Courier-News, moving into general management of an associated suburban weekly group and eventually running the circulation department of the Courier-News.
He later joined Boone Newspapers, Inc. (BNI) and moved to the Fergus Falls (Minn.) Daily Journal as advertising manager before being promoted to the publisher's position in Niles. During this time he also became a senior vice president for BNI, with management responsibility for several other community newspapers in Alabama and Ohio.
A graduate of the University of Illinois, he and his wife of 15 years, Margaret, have three children, Connor, Morgan and Erin and plan to move to the Sandusky area in the next few months.
In addition to the Sandusky Register, SNI owns daily newspapers in Kingsport, Johnson City and Lebanon, Tenn.; Norwalk, Ohio; Grand Haven, Mich.; Ogden, Utah; five weekly newspapers; and five radio stations in Phoenix and five in Seattle.