AKRON, OHIO — Strong growth is driving expansion at Plastics News, which has added a full-time reporter to its staff and filled a recently created post in the marketing department. This comes shortly after the publication added a new telemarketing sales position. Separately, the newspaper has promoted two staffers, hired a replacement for a longtime employee who retired at year's end, and named a new circulation manager.
"These additions and promotions were inevitable, based on the expansion of PN's brand and the development of several new products. These include our Web Watch directory of industry Internet addresses, an expanding range of online offerings such as e-mail delivery of news headlines, and our growing involvement in organizing conferences," said Tony Eagan, PN vice president and publisher. "Additionally, the weekly newspaper in 1999 exceeded 1,100 ad pages, and just completed its 10th straight record year, in revenue terms."
Joseph Pryweller, PN's Detroit-based reporter for the past three years, has been promoted to senior reporter and is relocating to the publication's Akron headquarters.
In Akron, Pryweller will continue to cover the mold-making industry, while also handling broader reporting assignments and getting more involved in special projects.
In Detroit, he has been replaced by Rhoda Miel, who joins Plastics News Jan. 10 after working for 15 years as a daily newspaper reporter in Michigan, including the past 11 at the Saginaw News. A 1984 graduate of Central Michigan University, Miel will work closely with Pryweller as she assumes the automotive and office-furniture beats from him.
Linda Whelan, who in fall 1988 was the first employee hired by Plastics News prior to its launch the following spring, has been promoted from marketing manager to marketing director. Whelan oversees all of the newspaper's marketing, promotion and trade-show exhibition activities.
She recently expanded her department by hiring Cari Kasner as promotion coordinator. A University of Akron graduate, Kasner has worked as an associate editor on a community newspaper, as a communications and design consultant, and, most recently, as a communications specialist in Akron public schools.
Meanwhile, another member of PN's original staff — sales secretary Gail Jones — retired Dec. 31. She has been replaced by sales assistant Charla M. DeVoe, who joins Crain Communications from an Akron construction company, where she had been office manager and administrative assistant. DeVoe, a Cleveland State University graduate, also has worked in sales for an engineering firm and in the restaurant business.
In Detroit, Robert Kelm has joined Plastics News as circulation manager. For the past year, Kelm has performed similar duties for Crain's Cleveland Business and assisted other Crain publications. He currently is pursuing a master's degree in marketing as well as certification as a Microsoft engineer.
Kelm essentially swaps roles with former PN circulation manager Don Mierendorf, who has assumed responsibility for Crain's Cleveland.