Daytona Beach News-Journal publisher Bill Offill has been promoted to the position of group publisher for three GateHouse Media newspapers in Florida, the company announced Friday.

Offill will now serve as publisher of the Times-Union, the St. Augustine Record and The News-Journal.

Journalists at The Florida Times-Union voted Thursday to form a union, becoming the third newspaper in Florida to take that step.

The NewsGuild-CWA will represent all of the newsroom's reporters, copy editors, photographers and digital producers. The vote, held under the supervision of the National Labor Relations Board, authorizes the union to begin contract negotiations with the Times-Union's parent company, GateHouse Media, on employees' behalf.

Journalists who work as reporters, photographers, copy editors and desk editors in the The Florida Times-Union newsroom in Jacksonville have signed cards stating that they want to be represented by The NewsGuild-CWA, the guild announced.

Jake Mienk, publisher of the Palestine Herald-Press and Corsicana Daily Sun, has expanded his publisher responsibilities to two additional Texas papers: The Huntsville Item and the Jacksonville Progress.

Sister newspapers in Eastern North Carolina are reorganizing their newsroom structures in a push to enhance local coverage on digital news platforms.

Newspapers primarily affected by the reorganization are the Sun Journal of New Bern and The Free Press of Kinston. The Daily News of Jacksonville is included in the reorganization, while additional resources will be provided by the StarNews in Wilmington.

Can a strong editorial voice become the center of a new local business model?

Yes, it can.

It's happening right now in Jacksonville, Fla., where Mark Nusbaum, publisher of The Florida Times-Union, has launched a new magazine with the mission of reviving the flagging downtown.

This is local advocacy journalism of a high order – an extension of The Times-Union's editorial page. And Mark and company have crafted a unique business model around it by recruiting 20 leaders of key institutions as premier partners/sponsors in support of the crusade.

Read this article for the details.

Editorial staff members from The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville and the former editorial page editor of The Ledger in Lakeland, Fla., have been awarded top honors by SNPA in the Carmage Walls Commentary Prize competition.

First-place in the "over 50,000" circulation category went to Mike Clark, Roger Brown, Wayne Ezell and Ron Littlepage of The Florida Times-Union. First-place in the "under 50,000" circulation category was awarded to Glenn Marston, former editorial page editor of The Ledger.

Second-place honors went to John Railey, editorial page editor of the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal, and Anita Shelburne, opinion page editor of The Daily Progress, Charlottesville, Va.

The awards were presented by Lissa Walls Vahldiek, CEO of Southern Newspapers, Inc., Houston, Texas. Vahldiek is the daughter of the late Benjamin Carmage Walls, for whom this award is named.

Walls, whose newspaper career spanned seven decades, primarily owned community newspapers and advocated strong, courageous and positive editorial page leadership.