3 candidates nominated for NNA regional directorships

Jun 5, 2013

COLUMBIA, MO—David Puddu, Pat Desmond and Philip Vega have been nominated for National Newspaper Association regional directorships.

Puddu, who is currently Region 10 director (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming), is being nominated for his second three-year term. Puddu is vice president and chief operating officer of Number Nine Media Inc., Belen, NM.

Desmond has been nominated for her second three-year term as Region 1 director (Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont). She is the publisher of the Milton (MA) Times.

Vega has been nominated for his first three-year term as Region 11 director (Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Guam). He is publisher of the Sierra Vista (AZ) Herald.

At Puddu’s Number Nine Media Inc., the company publishes the Valencia County News-Bulletin, the El Defensor Chieftain and the Mountain View Telegraph. He has held this post for 12 years. Puddu is originally from Pennsylvania and earned his journalism degree from the University of Nebraska. He is now in his 27th year in the newspaper business. He has served on numerous boards locally and is a past president of the New Mexico Press Association and is the current New Mexico state chair for NNA. He is currently serving on the executive committee, and has served NNA as marketing/membership co-chair, convention chair and a Congressional Action Team member.

Desmond is the publisher of The Milton Times, a weekly that dominates the market in Milton, MA. Milton is a high-end suburb of Boston and was declared the No. 2 small town in America by Money Magazine in 2011. She began her career as a reporter at the Patriot Ledger in Quincy, MA, in 1966.

Over the years, she has worked at the Boston Herald, Mariner Newspapers (now part of the Gatehouse chain), the Quincy Sun and the Hull Times.

In 1995, after being laid off by a newspaper chain, Desmond and her two children created the Milton Times in the community where she had been raised. Her children now live in New Hampshire but retain an ownership interest in the paper.

The newspaper is a weekly, published each Thursday, with a circulation of 4,200.

Vega is a native of Kansas and a graduate of Kansas State University with a degree in journalism and mass communications.

In 1996, he came to Sierra Vista as the newspaper’s general manager and was named publisher in 2003. Before that, he was the managing editor for the Junction City (KS) Daily Union, then joined Wick Communications as managing editor at the Roanoke Rapids (NC) Herald.

In 2011, the Herald/Review was named Newspaper of the Year in its circulation category by the Arizona Newspapers Association.

Vega serves on the ANA board of directors as well as on various local boards.

Any NNA member may submit additional nominees. Each nominee must be supported by a petition signed by at least 10 NNA members within that region. The nominee must not be from the same state as the current or outgoing director. Send nominations to: Chairman, NNA Nominating Committee for either Region 1, 10, or 11, P.O. Box 7540, Columbia, MO 65205-7540. Nominations must be received by no later than July 15, 2013.

Eligible persons will have their names added to the ballot. Ballots will be sent July 18.

For more information, contact Lynn Edinger at 573-777-4982, or lynn@nna.org.