Daytona Beach News-Journal announces newsroom reorganization

John Gallas

There has been a change in some editing responsibilities at The Daytona Beach News-Journal, as part of a newsroom reorganizing announced to the staff this past week by News-Journal Editor Pat Rice.

John Gallas, a veteran of more than 20 years in the News-Journal newsroom, has been named the newspaper's managing editor.

In his time at the newspaper, Gallas, 46, has worked in numerous editing roles, most recently as a deputy managing editor with a focus on expanding the newsroom's emphasis on digital news-gathering.

"I believe that local journalism is probably the most important area of journalism," Gallas said. "It's news and information that affects our community, where your money is spent, where your kids are raised."

Gallas replaces Derek Catron, another News-Journal veteran who has moved into a job as enterprise editor for the national reporting team created by GateHouse Media, owner of The News-Journal. Veteran award-winning environmental reporter Dinah Voyles Pulver also will be working on that national investigative team.

Gallas, a UCF journalism graduate who grew up in New Smyrna Beach, said his goal is to continue to broaden the newspaper's digital reach.

"Our direction now is to get news out to people where they are," Gallas said. "We're serving several different audiences, many on phones, computers and places where we need to find them to share truth about stories. That's our mission."

As part of the reorganization, Ashley Varese, The News-Journal's special publications editor, moves into the role of communities editor. In that job, she will manage a team of reporters covering local news.

Varese joined The News-Journal in January, coming from Connecticut, where she managed the editorial staffs of a group of weekly newspaper that included special publications work.