The Bay Area News Group has named Frank Pine, editor of the Southern California News Group, as its new executive editor.
Pine will lead the newsrooms of The Mercury News and the East Bay Times. In addition to his duties with the Bay Area News Group, Pine will continue to serve as editor of the 11 publications that make up the Southern California News Group.
Pine replaces Neil Chase, who stepped down from the company in January to to take a position as chief executive officer of CALmatters, a non-profit news agency that covers government and politics.
Pine said he believes the Northern and Southern California newsrooms, working together, can expand their coverage of statewide topics, and serve as a resource for readers across the state who are interested in understanding other California regions.
“Our strength is that we are a large team of professional journalists spread across all of California,” he said. “We already cover the state like no one else does, and by combining our efforts, we’re going to be able to provide more comprehensive reporting to benefit our readers.”
Sharon Ryan, the president and publisher of the Bay Area News Group, announced Pine’s appointment in a Monday statement, which cited his work in developing a digital strategy for both news groups. Like many of their counterparts across the country, the two news organizations are aggressively pursuing digital audience and subscriptions to fund their newsrooms in an era of declining print newspaper revenues.
“In uniting the Bay Area and SCNG newsrooms under Frank’s leadership, we are strengthening our already formidable news teams and creating new opportunities to expand our audience and increase engagement,” said Ryan, who oversees those media organizations as Executive Vice President-Western Region for MediaNews Group.
A native of the San Gabriel Valley and a graduate of Cal Poly Pomona, Pine started his journalism career at the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin in Ontario in 1996. In addition to reporting and editing over the past 23 years, he also has experience in newsroom administration development, project management and publication redesign efforts. He served a stint as director of audience development for MediaNews Group.
“Our industry has been changing very dramatically, and the changes have been challenging to say the least,” Pine said. “But the reason I am in this industry is that I believe in journalism. It’s more important now than ever before.”
