04/08/2016

Three new trustees join ONA board

Bill Southern, president of the ONA Board of Trustees and finance director of The Blade, has appointed three new trustees to fill positions vacated by departing board members.

They are Josh Morrison, general manager and circulation director of Ironton Publications Inc.; Tim Parkison, publisher of The Sandusky Register; and Bradley M. Harmon, president and publisher of The Dispatch Media Group. Harmon also is president of central U.S. operations for GateHouse Media, overseeing newspapers in eight states.

Under ONA bylaws, the board president fills positions that come open during the course of a three-year term while ONA members elected board members upon expiration of each term.

Morrison, Parkison and Harmon fill the seats that were held by  Kirk Dougal of the Putnam County Sentinel in Van Wert, Jim Porter of The Canton Repository and Joe Gallo of the Dispatch Publishing Co.

Morrison has deep ties to Lawrence County Ohio, growing up in South Point, and now resides in Ironton with his wife, Tara and one daughter. He began his newspaper career as a weekend sub carrier, and after graduating from high school contracted on his own route.  He delivered newspapers for several companies before moving inside as a circulation clerk and district manager for the Ironton Tribune in 2006. He was promoted to circulation manager in late 2006, and stayed in that role until October 2014, when he was promoted to general manager.

He is active in several community events along with sports and civic organizations, including the Ironton Rotary Club, Leadership Tri-State and coaching his daughter’s travel softball team.

Harmon joined GateHouse in 2010 as corporate vice president of sales & marketing and was promoted to regional vice president for the paper’s community and then large daily newspaper divisions. He was named president and publisher of the Dispatch Media Group in October, following GateHouse’s purchase.

He began his media career at The News-Herald in Willoughby and then progressed to Thomson Publications in Mansfield. Before joining GateHouse, Harmon held senior sales and marketing positions at a series of media companies, including The Oregonian in Portland, the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, The Indianapolis Star and The Cincinnati Enquirer. He is a member of the Columbus Partnership.

Harmon is a graduate of Lake Erie College. He resides in Westerville, Ohio, with his wife Rachel and their two sons, Grant and Gavin.

Parkison started his media career in high school when he worked as a weekend DJ at WVNO in Mansfield.  He continued to work in radio and television while attending Ashland University studying radio/television Production and performance with a minor in music.

He stayed in Central Ohio until 1995 working in various roles including production, on-air, promotions, programming, sales and station management with WVNO-FM, WRGM-AM, WMFD-TV and WAPQ-FM.  He then accepted a position with Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting (Lorain Printing and Publishing Co.) to help launch a new radio station (WKFM-FM) in the Sandusky area and build new facilities on the shores of Lake Erie.

The company acquired several additional radio stations and Tim grew to the position of director of operations for the company. His next role took him to Envision Radio Networks, based in New York City and Cleveland, as VP/General Manager.  Parkison joined the Sandusky Newspaper Group in 2009 and holds the position of executive vice president/publisher for The Sandusky Register and Tandem Media Network (The Norwalk Reflector, LPTV 41, and Funcoast Magazine).

In addition to his professional career, Parkison has been a member of many community and volunteer boards and has held leadership roles including work in economic development, local chambers, Rotary and several industry associations.  He lives in Huron with his wife, Lisa, and enjoys boating, the Islands, traveling and summertime on the shores of Lake Erie.