Journal Times names a new publisher

The Journal Times has a new publisher.

Mark Lewis, of Lihue, Hawaii, replaces Rick Parrish as head of Racine's daily paper. Parrish leaves for a new publisher's job in Longview, Wash.

Here's a story about Lewis from his former paper, The Garden Island.

And here are excerpts from a 2006 story when Lewis took the job in Kauai:

Lewis, 38, began his newspaper career with Lee in 1988 at the Lincoln Journal Star in Lincoln, Neb. He joined the U.S. Marines in 1989, and returned to Lincoln in 1993, serving as a circulation district manager, area manager, single copy manager, state circulation manager and interim circulation director. In 1998 he left Lee to become state circulation director of the Omaha World-Herald, and in 2001 he was recruited to become circulation director of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, where he built a circulation department from scratch, hired all employees and set up packaging procedures. He returned to Lee in 2002 as circulation director of the Sioux City Journal, and in 2004 was promoted to director of operations, responsible for circulation, packaging, press and production.

The JT job is a nice promotion for Lewis, who jumps from a paper with a circulation of less than 10,000, to one nearly three times the size.

Parrish moves to a smaller paper - Longview has about 22,000 readers - but the paper is closer to his home. To his credit, Parrish strongly backed the JT newsroom as publisher and actually bolstered news staffing at a time when many papers were cutting reporters, editors and photographers.

Let's hope Lewis maintains the same commitment. (We also hope he's ready for winter. Did anybody tell him where Racine is located before he decided to leave Hawaii?)