April 22, 2005
Rich Bauer will head editorial association
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Rich Bauer, managing editor of The Vandalia Leader-Union, is the new president of the Southern Illinois Editorial Association (SIEA).
Bauer began his one-year term today (April 22), at the SIEA’s annual spring meeting at Giant City State Park Lodge. He succeeds Jill Boomer, publisher of The Jersey County Star in Jerseyville. He is a native of Pana, where he worked as a sportswriter and photographer for Tom Phillips at The Pana News-Palladium in high school. He also served an internship at the News-Palladium during college.
“I look forward to what lies ahead this year, and I know the organization will continue to make a difference in community journalism,” Bauer said.
Bauer studied journalism at Eastern Illinois University, working on the Eastern News as a staff writer, photo editor, copy desk editor and press assistant. He also served as news editor of the Eastern yearbook.
After college, he worked as reporter and photographer for The Tuscola Journal and Tuscola Review for about a year. He then joined The Leader-Union in Vandalia, which is part of the Landmark Community Newspapers chain, as a reporter and photographer in April 1981. He was named news editor of the paper in November 1983 and promoted two years later to managing editor, a position he still holds.
His community service in Vandalia has included 15 1/2 years as a member of the Vandalia Volunteer Fire Department.
Other officers moving up the organization’s ladder are Julie Boren of the Pike Press in Pittsfield, to first vice president, and Mike Springston of the Sparta News-Plaindealer, to second vice president and Tom Mathews Jr., editor of Wayne County Press in Fairfield, to secretary.
Jerry Reppert, publisher of the Anna Gazette-Democrat, will continue to serve as the organization’s treasurer. The SIEA also retained Sue Davis, executive director of Media & Communication Resources at SIUC, as executive secretary. SIEA has been headquartered at the University for more than 50 years.