3 nominated to the NNA board of directors

Aug 23, 2017

Jeanne Straus, Jeremy Waltner and Kara Cooper have been nominated as regional directors to the National Newspaper Association board of directors.

SPRINGFIELD, IL—Jeanne Straus, Jeremy Waltner and Kara Cooper have been nominated as regional directors to the National Newspaper Association board of directors.
Straus, owner of Straus Media in New York and New Jersey, has been nominated to her first three-year term as director of Region 1 (Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont). She was appointed to the position earlier this year by NNA President Matt Paxton, publisher of the Lexington  (VA) News-Gazette.
Waltner, co-publisher and editor of the Freeman (SD) Courier, has been nominated to his first three-year term as director of Region 5 (Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin). This seat has been vacant since Andrew Johnson, publisher of the Dodge County Pionier, was named NNA treasurer during the association’s 130th Annual Convention and Trade Show.
Cooper, co-publisher of the Casa Grande Valley Newspapers Inc. in Casa Grade, AZ, was nominated to her first three-year term as director of Region 10 (Arizona, California, Hawaii and Nevada). She had been appointed to the board in 2015 to fill the unexpired term of Phillip Vega, publisher of the Sierra Vista (AZ) Herald, the Bisbee Daily Review and the San Pedro Valley News-Sun.
Ballots for these candidates were emailed to the member newspapers in their respective regions. The election results will be announced during NNA’s business meeting at the association’s 131st convention, Oct. 5-7 in Tulsa, OK. If you are in one of these regions and did not receive a ballot, contact NNA Chief Operating Officer Lynne Lance at lynne@nna.org.
Straus is a leader in the communications and community service fields. She began her career working at The White House News Summary as an editorial assistant and then worked for The Associated Press. She joined the family business working in news operations and eventually as program director for Radio Station WMCA.
Since assuming the leadership of Straus News, she has increased the local news publications and served on the board and as president of the New York Press Association; the executive committee and as president of the New York Press Association Foundation; founder and president of the Community Reporting Alliance; and founder and vice president of New York Cares, the largest volunteer organization in New York City.
Today, Straus News consists of 17 distinct weekly papers in Manhattan and New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania; a magazine for super greenies called Dirt; and vibrant and growing local news websites.
Waltner is immediate past president of the South Dakota Newspaper Association and past president of the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors. He is whole-heartedly committed to community journalism and the printed word; he is a second-generation publisher and wrote his first story for the Freeman weekly in 1989, when he was 13 years old. He continued working for the Courier during his high school years and then, after studying journalism at South Dakota State University in Brookings, returned to his hometown newspaper in 1999 to work alongside his dad, Tim L. Waltner, as news editor.
Jeremy and his wife, Stacey, became co-publishers after purchasing the Courier on Jan. 1, 2016.
Cooper is a third-generation newspaper publisher. Her grandfather, Verle V. Kramer, was in the newspaper business in Illinois with his two sons, and became president of the National Newspaper Association in the 1960s.
Having the vision and desire to move to the Southwest, Cooper’s parents sold their two small Illinois newspapers and moved to Casa Grande in 1963. The family purchased or started other small weeklies and specialty publications around Casa Grande throughout the years. Located halfway between Phoenix and Tucson, the Casa Grande Dispatch grew to be a six-day daily.
All four of the Kramer children worked at the family business, and all graduated with degrees in journalism. Cooper’s father, Donovan M. Kramer Sr., was named a Master-Editor Publisher by the Arizona Newspapers Association and served as president in the 1980s.
Cooper’s mother, Ruth, and brother, Donovan M. Kramer Jr., work together and actively operate Casa Grande Valley Newspapers Inc. Donovan and Kara are co-publishers and also each carry a department head title. The family has sister publications in the White Mountains of Arizona where Donovan’s son, Brian, is publisher.