Journal Star names new editor
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By MATT OLBERDING / Lincoln Journal Star
Michael Nelson, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln graduate and longtime journalist at the Kansas City Star, has been named editor of the Lincoln Journal Star.
Nelson, 59, succeeds Kathleen Rutledge, who left the paper in November. He will start his duties April 21.
Nelson, who has spent his entire career in Kansas City, said he is excited to return to Nebraska.
After growing up in southwest Iowa, he attended high school at Omaha Benson and then went on to attend UNL.
“I have a deep affection for Nebraska,” he said. “I have family there and I follow news there.”
Because of that, Nelson said, he’s learned the Journal Star is a strong newspaper with a top-notch staff.
“I have a great deal of respect for the talent in your newsroom. I think your newsroom is very, very good,” he said.
“Because I care about your paper, I think I can offer good stewardship of it.”
Nelson said his goals for the paper are a strong local news report with unique content, a strong breaking news report on JournalStar.com and niche products to serve a wide variety of readers’ interests.
Journal Star Publisher John Maher emphasized Nelson’s role in bolstering JournalStar.com’s breaking news report and multimedia opportunities.
In fact, JournalStar.com tested live streaming video from outside of Memorial Stadium on Wednesday — 20 minutes after Nelson was announced as editor.
“Michael will assume responsibility for a multimedia newsroom functioning in a 24/7 news environment,” Maher said. “I know that he is the right leader to continue to drive progress for our news operations and our company.”
Nelson started his newspaper career as a copy editor and sometimes reporter at the now-defunct Kansas City Times. He became features editor at the Times and since 1978 has held a variety of assistant managing editor positions at the Star.
In his role as assistant managing editor for suburbs and zoning, Nelson oversees news operations for suburban areas of Kansas City in Missouri and Kansas.
He led the Star’s community news initiative in the early 1990s, helping the newspaper emerge as the dominant medium in Kansas City’s competitive and rapidly growing suburbs.
The zoning operation he helped create has been widely regarded as the best in the country. Earlier in his career he reorganized the newspaper’s feature sections, building readership and winning awards for those sections.
He also was editor of The Star’s centennial history in 1980, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and in 2005 oversaw its 125th anniversary edition.
“I’m excited about the opportunity to work with Michael again,” Maher said.
“We were peers while I was at the Kansas City Star from ’95 to 2000, and I really enjoyed working with him. He is a dedicated, professional journalist who will make a difference for Lincoln and for the Journal Star.”
Nelson has been active in charitable and journalistic organizations and public service projects. He spent eight years as a trustee of the Leukemia Society of Mid- America and was a founding board member of the Patriotism Foundation, which promotes voter registration in suburban Kansas City.
He is involved in alumni and journalism activities at UNL, where he was recognized with the Journalism Alumni Award of Excellence in 1996. He is now ending his 14th year on the publications board of the Johnson County, Kan., College.
In 2004, Nelson was the inaugural winner of that college’s Headline Award for meritorious service to local journalism.
Nelson said he hopes to continue his community service in Lincoln after he gets settled in his new job.
He is married to Christie Cater Nelson, an Ogallala native and freelance journalist. They have two daughters, Libby, a junior at Northwestern University, and Laura, a high school senior who will attend the University of Southern California in the fall.
Nelson jokingly noted that in becoming editor of the Journal Star, he will have to live up to the expectations created by his daughters, who are both editors of their school newspapers.
“I have to prove myself worthy of my children,” he said.
Reach Matt Olberding at 473-2647 or molberding@journalstar.com.
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Barb wrote on March 26, 2008 1:04 pm:
anyone wrote on March 26, 2008 10:27 pm:
old rag reporter wrote on March 26, 2008 10:36 pm:
Justin wrote on March 30, 2008 5:59 am:
He's a keeper. Be nice to him, Huddle. "