DN-R publisher named president of VPA

On July 1, 2011, Peter Yates of the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg became the 111th president of the Virginia Press Association and Virginia Press Services, Inc. (VPA/VPS)

Yates began his newspaper career in 1985 at The Daily Progress in Charlottesville. He became publisher of The Herald-Tribune in Batesville, Ind., in 1987. Yates published several newspapers in Virginia, including dailies in Danville, Woodbridge, Manassas and Culpeper, between 1988 and 1999. In January 2000, he became editor and general manager of the Daily News-Record, where he supervises the operations of the newspaper, its affiliated weekly newspapers and its website, dnronline.com.

In addition to serving as president of VPA/VPS, Yates is chairman of the Harrisonburg Electric Commission and serves on the boards of the Salvation Army of Harrisonburg, the Rockingham Educational Foundation, the Harrisonburg Education Foundation, the Community Foundation of Harrisonburg/Rockingham and the Arts Council of the Valley.

He is a past president of both the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Chamber of Commerce and the Arts Council of the Valley, a past chairman of the Rockingham Memorial Hospital Foundation Board, and a past campaign chair of the United Way of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County. Yates, a native of Richmond, is a graduate of Woodberry Forest School and the University of Virginia.

Yates will head a slate of officers for 2011-12 that includes the following persons:

• President-Elect: Keith Stickley, The Free Press, Woodstock;
• Vice President: Nick Cadwallender, The Free Lance-Star, Fredericksburg;
• Secretary: Jay Bondurant, Bedford Bulletin, Bedford;
• Treasurer: Eric Lieberman, The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.;
• Past President: Olivia Hartman, The Virginia Gazette, Williamsburg; and
• Assistant Secretary/Treasurer: Ginger Stanley, Virginia Press Association.

Steven Kaylor of the Danville Register & Bee, Bill Owens of The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk and Marisa Porto of the Daily Press in Newport News began their first three-year terms on the board of directors as of July 1.

VPA is a nonprofit trade association that has served the Virginia newspaper industry since 1881.