Press-Telegram promotes three newsroom staff members

LONG BEACH -- Three veteran staff members have been promoted atthe Press-Telegram.

John Futch has been appointed news/content Editor, Paul Eakinswill fill the newly created position of presentation editor, andRobert Meeks has been promoted to online editor.

In his new role Futch serves as the newspaper's leader for thegathering of news and is responsible for directing, coordinating andediting the local news report across all platforms.

Futch joined the Press-Telegram staff in 1983 and has served in anumber of capacities on the News and City desks. He has beeninstrumental in the installation and operation of severalgenerations of computer systems and in related Internet operations.

From 1995 to 1997, he was managing editor and then editor of theBoca Raton (Florida) News. He returned to Long Beach in 1998.

He came to the Press-Telegram from the Atlanta Journal, where hewas features news editor and executive sports editor. Prior to thathe was sports editor of the Athens (Georgia) Daily News.

He holds bachelor's and master's degrees from the University ofGeorgia and served in 1968-69 as an Army officer in Vietnam, wherehe was awarded the Bronze Star for Meritorious Service. He hastaught journalism at the University of Georgia and at Long BeachCity College. He is a resident of Long Beach.

Eakins, who joined the Press-Telegram in 2007, will serve as thenewspaper's leader for visual design, coordinating the integrationof digital and print content. His responsibilities includeinitiating the use and production of graphics, charts andalternative story forms.

Eakins received a bachelor's degree in journalism from theUniversity of Kansas, and his professional work has includedediting, designing and overseeing newspaper publications, as well asreporting on politics, government and education. From 1998 to 2002,he worked at the Topeka Capital-Journal, where he was a copy editorand designer, reporter, and editor of several special weeklypublications, including a bilingual news page.

He then moved to Veracruz, Mexico, for three years, where hetaught English and reported for The Associated Press, includingcovering a gubernatorial election. Eakins returned to the UnitedStates in 2005 to work at the North County Times in Escondido,covering education and city hall. He most recently covered LongBeach City Hall and politics during his time with the Press-Telegram. He lives in Long Beach.

Eakins, along with two other reporters, received a public serviceaward from the California Newspaper Publishers Association this yearfor a series of stories that revealed a questionable relationshipbetween a City Hall official and a lobbyist.

Meeks will manage website production and development. A SouthernCalifornia native and Long Beach resident, Meeks started hisjournalism career at the Orange County Register, where he coveredthe communities of Anaheim Hills and Villa Park. He has also writtenfor The Compton Bulletin and The Inglewood Tribune.

Meeks, who graduated from Cal State Long Beach with a bachelor'sdegree in journalism, started working at the Press-Telegram in 2006.Since then he has produced award-winning news video and interactiveweb content and launched the pop culture blog, Modern Mythology.

His work was most recently honored by the LA Press Club at itsSouthern California Journalism Awards. Meeks and staff writer GregMellen won first place in online personality profile for theircollaboration on a web video about the "Kingman," a Jamaican reggaepioneer fallen on hard times in the streets of Long Beach.

"Robert, Paul, John and I will be working closely with our staffto continue to build on the nearly 500,000 individual readers wereach over the course of a week," Press-Telegram Editor and GeneralManager Sue Schmitt said. Our readership, audience and viewernumbers, all statistics assimilated through accredited sources, areup 6 percent over last year and we want to continue that momentum."

"Much as with other media outlets, we have had our challenges,especially as people turn to a variety of sources for information,"said Schmitt. "We continue to have substantially more staff coveringLong Beach than any other news operation, which has given us asignificant leadership position in web and digital readership."

- From staff reports