Will assume Marketing chair.

Baltimore City Paper Publisher Don Farley has been named to the AAN Board of Directors, AAN President Patty Calhoun announced today.

Farley will assume the marketing chair vacated by Art Howe when he resigned his position at Village Voice Media.

“Marketing is becoming increasingly important to AAN members, as well as the organization as a whole, and there are several marketing matters that need to be considered before the convention. Fortunately, Don Farley agreed to join the board, bringing with him valuable expertise,” Calhoun says.

Farley is publisher of the Baltimore City Paper, and group publisher of the Times Shamrock alternative weekly division, which includes the City Paper as well as Metro Times (Detroit), Orlando Weekly and San Antonio Current.

“I have published the City Paper for about 14 years now, and I really just feel it’s time I gave some contribution back to the association and the board,” Farley says. “I’ve got enough experience now to have something to offer.”

He looks forward to improving marketing for the association and its members. The association’s geographic and cultural breadth is impressive and could be promoted more aggressively, he says.

“When I meet with the board for the first time in June, I’ll get their feel on it,” he says. “I don’t know that any of us do enough to get the word out to our communities about who we are and what we do.”

Farley will attend the board meeting in New Orleans, and at the annual meeting he will stand for election for the one year remaining in Howe’s original term.