As the Nisqually Valley News’ new publisher and editor, Michael Wagar knows he has big shoes to fill. But, with a 10.5 shoe size, he’s up for the challenge.
The former executive editor of the NVN’s sister paper, The Chronicle, started his new job last week.
“I was impressed with the staff’s enthusiasm for both the Nisqually Valley News and the greater Yelm area,” he said.
Wagar will report to Christine Fossett, president and chief operating officer of Lafromboise Communications, Inc., the parent company of the NVN, The Chronicle and the Battleground Reflector.
“He has a proven track record for producing quality local news that represents and informs the community,” Fossett said. “The readers of the paper will appreciate his progressive style and his innovative ideas.”
Wagar and Fossett worked together for more than a decade at The Chronicle. Part of the attraction of coming to the NVN, Wagar said, is its ownership by the Lafromboise family.
Wagar resigned from his position as a communications advisor for TransAlta, a multi-national power company with an electrical generating plant in Centralia, to take the position.
“I will give it my all to continue in the fine tradition of community journalism built up by this staff and its former publisher Keven Graves.”
Graves, publisher of the Nisqually Valley News since 1999, resigned last month taking the publisher position for the Whidbey Newspaper Group, which includes three weekly newspapers and a monthly military edition.
