By:
Richner Communications publishers Cliff and Stuart Richner recently announced that John C. O'Connell, editor of the Valley Stream Herald for the past five years, has been promoted to executive editor of the company's Herald Community Newspapers group, effective immediately.
O'Connell will manage the newsroom staff of Richner's 15 weekly newspapers dedicated to covering more than 40 communities on the South Shore of Nassau County.
"John will be responsible for all aspects of the editorial product," said Cliff Richner. "He will also work with our management team in formulating growth strategies and content mix for our publications.
"I can't think of a better person than John for the position," Richner added.
"I'm excited about this new opportunity," O'Connell said. "Turning out informative, interesting, readable, attractive, local-oriented newspapers every week is a serious challenge and a fabulous opportunity. Helping manage the talented and experienced editorial team here is an honor."
Prior to joining to the Herald in 1998, O'Connell worked for five years as copy editor, city reporter and managing editor of the Gold Coast Gazette, a weekly newspaper covering Glen Cove and neighboring North Shore areas.
In addition to his newspaper experience, O'Connell was a freelance travel writer and photographer for the honeymoon section of Elegant Bride magazine, and was a contributor to North Shore magazine. Prior to joining the Gazette, he spent almost 20 years in corporate human resources management.
"It's nice to be able to reward a dedicated employee for his hard work," said Stuart Richner. "John has shown a great deal of energy over the years, and I have no doubt that he is a leader who can help the company continue to grow and change with the times while maintaining the quality our readers have come to rely on."
O'Connell is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Press Club of Long Island.
"Community journalism is one of the most rewarding careers if you're interested in people and communication," O'Connell said. "Community journalists and photojournalists perform an incredibly important and very fulfilling function by using their talents to enable neighbors to talk to neighbors and to help communities learn about themselves.
"I think that communities too often have micro worlds inside them that hardly ever connect with each other," he continued. "There's the school world and the government world and the association world and the business world, and so on. The one place they can all meet, and the one place the average person can get to meet all the worlds within the community, is in their neighborhood weekly newspaper, if it's a good newspaper.
"We witness the happy and the tragic, and we report the news that most affects people's lives on their own streets, in their own schools, their own village halls and police precincts. And we provide a forum for people to speak up about what's on their minds. And we help readers learn what's going on in the lives of others nearby."
O'Connell was just elected the 2004 president of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, Nassau County Division 8, and is a member of New York University's Glucksman Ireland House.
He has been a volunteer photographer for Community Mainstreaming Associates, a not-for-profit organization that provides residential services for men and women with developmental disabilities, and he has served on the leadership council of the Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence. He is also a member of the South Shore Audubon Society, a birding and conservation group.
"I'm going to miss direct involvement in the Valley Stream Herald, and in the stories and photos of Valley Stream people," O'Connell said. "I've come to love Valley Stream. But my loss is Valley Stream's gain, because I leave the Herald in the very able and caring hands of its new editor, Nicole Falco, who's already covered the community for two years."
Richner Communications is the largest independently owned publisher of newspapers and shoppers in Nassau County. In addition to Herald Community Newspapers, Richner publishes nine editions of the PrimeTime Guide, a weekly mailed community calendar guide serving the county's South Shore. The combined readership of Herald Community Newspapers and the PrimeTime Guides is over 500,000.
