PERSONS.

Publishers: At Texas' Greenville Herald-Banner, Bill Morgan has been named publisher; most recently he was publisher of the Athens Daily Review, also in Texas. In his 20-year-plus newspaper career, Morgan has also been publisher at such Texas papers as the Jacksonville Daily Progress and the Sweetwater Reporter and earlier served as editor of Oklahoma's Durant Democrat. Taking Morgan's place in Athens will be David Sullens; most recently he was publisher of Mississippi's Kosciusko Star-Herald. Sullens began his career at Texas' Van Alstyne Leader and has also worked at Texan papers such as the Paris News, the Galveston County Daily News, The Herald-Zeitung in New Braunfels and the Navasota Examiner. ...

Front office: At the Los Angeles Times, Brian Kokes has been named national advertising director; most recently he had held a similar position at the San Francisco Chronicle since 2003. Koke's 15-year career started at the Sacramento Bee and in 1993 he moved to the Fresno Bee, eventually becoming national accounts manager. Five years later he moved to Contra Costa Newspapers, becoming retail ad manager in 1999 and moving to the Chronicle in 2000. ... At Texas' Amarillo Globe-News, Steven Metzinger has been named advertising director; previously he was on-line director, a job he'd held for the last two years. An eight-year veteran of the paper, Metzinger started as a proof-runner. ... At the Chippewa Valley Newspapers Inc. of Chippewa Falls, Wis. (Chippewa Herald, Dunn County News, et al.), Steve Jahn has been named advertising director; he will remain publisher of the Dunn County News, a job he's held since 1996. Earlier in his career, Jahn was an advertising and circulation executive at Thomson's Wisconsin Strategic Marketing Group in Wisconsin Rapids, Wis. ... At Capital Newspapers Inc. of Madison, Wis. (State Journal, Capital Times, et al.), Mary DeNiro has been named senior vice president for sales and marketing; previously she was vice president of advertising, a job she'd held since 2000. Earlier she was vice president of advertising development at Thomson Newspapers and was chief operating officer of Thomson Target Media. Before that she had served as a regional marketing vice president for Thomson and was once the national advertising director of the Irish Press Group in Dublin. ...

Editor: At Illinois' Rockford Register Star, Jeff Gauger has been named managing editor; previously he was assistant managing editor for news at Nebraska's Omaha World-Herald. Starting his career with weekly newspapers in Washington state, Gauger joined the World-Herald in 1985 as a police reporter and worked his way up the ranks, becoming metro editor and enterprise editor before being named AME in 1998. ...