Luann Labedz will take over on June 2 for departing publisher Dave Schmall, chief operating officer Kirk MacDonald told the staff Thursday morning. Labedz comes to Creative Loafing after 18 years at Gannett Co., most recently as director of market development at the Citizen-Times in Asheville, N.C. During her tenure at Gannett, she was responsible for niche publications, product development, strategy and advertiser partnerships. "It's not broken here, so I want to build on that," Labedz says. "There's a great deal of energy here."
Scott Hassenflu moves from the San Francisco Bay Guardian to take over the News & Review's flagship Sacramento paper. He replaces Dave Schmall, who returned to Minneapolis as associate publisher of Tom Bartel and Kris Henning's new monthly, the Rake. Meanwhile, Terry Garrett, former publisher of the Weekly Planet in Tampa, is moving to Marin County after being named sales director at Pacific Sun.
"They've been doing these jobs for a while now," says Jeff vonKaenel, explaining why he recently named Kathy Barrett and Dave Schmall publisher at their respective weeklies, Chico News & Review and Sacramento News & Review. Both had been serving as general manager.
