Posted Sept. 11, 2008

Bobbie Jo Buel, executive editor of the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson, has been elected president of the Associated Press Managing Editors Association.

Buel replaces David Ledford, executive editor of The News Journal in Wilmington, Del., and will serve a one-year term ending with the 2009 APME annual conference Oct. 28-30 in St. Louis.

During its annual convention in Las Vegas Sept. 8-11, the association of editors at AP's 1,500-member newspapers in the U.S. and newspapers served by the Canadian Press in Canada also elected these officers: Otis Sanford, editor of opinion and editorials of The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn., vice president; Hollis Towns, executive editor of the Cincinnati Enquirer, secretary, and Joseph Garcia, viewpoints and aztalk editor of The Arizona Republic in Phoenix, chairman of the Journalism Today committees.

Members elected these representatives to three-year terms on the association's governing board: Debra Adams Simmons, managing editor of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland; Kurt Franck, managing editor of The Blade, Toledo, Ohio; Randy Lovely, editor and vice president-news, The Arizona Republic; Martin Reynolds, editor, The Oakland Tribune and assistant managing editor-news of the Bay Area News Group; Michael Days, editor, Philadelphia Daily News; David Bailey, managing editor, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Brad Dennison, vice president of news operations of Gatehouse Media in Fairport, N.Y., and Alan D. Miller, managing editor-news of The Columbus Dispatch, were elected to two-year terms.

Kathleen Williams, executive editor of the Hattiesburg (Miss.) American, was elected to a three-year term representing newspapers under 35,000 circulation. In an election for online editors, Kathy Best, managing editor-digital news and innovation of The Seattle Times, was elected to a three-term term while Jack Lail, managing editor-multimedia of the Knoxville (Tenn.) News Sentinel, was elected to fill a one-year unexpired term.