AKRON, OHIO - Plastics News, in the midst of several new projects, has expanded its editorial staff for the second time in a year. Lisa Sarkis Neaville, formerly a part-time copy editor, has become a full-time reporter.
Daily newspaper veteran Stephen Kovach will join the publication March 6 as a full-time copy editor.
Liz Cherry has joined the newspaper in the newly created post of part-time editorial researcher.
Meanwhile Angela Charles, who has served as Plastics News' assistant managing editor since its inception nearly six years ago, has left the publication to become managing editor of a newspaper that Crain Communications Inc. plans to launch in Akron later this spring.
Neaville, a former English instructor at the University of Akron, holds a Master of Fine Arts in Writing degree from Washington University in St. Louis. She was editorial assistant for Plastics News in early 1989 when the newspaper began.
Neaville returned to teaching briefly but then rejoined the publication in 1990 as a part-time copy editor and has served in that role ever since. She now will serve primarily as a general-assignment reporter.
Kovach, an Ohio University journalism graduate, joins Plastics News from The Morning Journal, a 45,000-circulation daily paper in Lorain, Ohio, where he has worked since November 1989, most recently as news editor. Prior to that, Kovach served as assistant news editor at The Centre Daily Times, an award-winning Knight-Ridder newspaper in State College, Pa., and in the mid-1980s worked as a reporter and copy editor at three Thomson Newspapers-owned dailies in Ohio.
Cherry, who earned master's and bachelor's degrees in journalism from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, worked as managing editor in the early 1980s at two Akron-based, monthly trade magazines - Bill Communications Inc.'s Jobber Retailer and Babcox Publications' Automotive Chain Store. She also gained marketing experience at Bill before beginning a freelance writing career in 1990.
As editorial researcher, one of Cherry's primary duties will be to seek out and confirm data for Plastics News' six annual processor ranking projects.
Charles, who left Plastics News Feb. 15, has stepped up within the company to help launch and manage the new publication. ``We certainly are sorry to lose the talents of Angie, who played such a central role in Plastics News' start-up and subsequent success,'' said Editor Robert Grace. ``But I'm sure she will bring the same energy and managerial skills to Crain's new project as she brought to our newspaper. We also are very lucky to secure the experienced talents of Lisa Neaville, Steve Kovach and Liz Cherry as we tackle several ambitious projects.''
Plastics News on Feb. 13 produced its first edition of Mexifax, a weekly, Spanish-language news fax for more than 1,000 Mexican plastics industry officials.
Last week Plastics News produced at the Western Plastics Expo in Long Beach, Calif., the first of several four-page, full-color, daily show issues known as PN Extra. Similar show dailies are planned this year for Plast-Ex in Toronto, Plastics USA in Chicago and the Plastics Fairs in Cleveland and Providence, R.I.
