OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - The Omaha World-Herald on Thursday named Randy Essex as its executive editor.
World-Herald President and Publisher Todd Sears announced Essex would lead the newspaper, saying his leadership experience at several media outlets made him “ideally suited to the The World-Herald newsroom.”
Essex will come to Omaha from the Detroit Free Press, where he worked as a senior editor since 2017. Before working in Detroit, Essex was a newsroom leader at papers in Cincinnati, Des Moines, Iowa, and Boise, Idaho. He worked as publisher and editor of the Glenwood Springs, Colorado, paper from 2014-2017.
It will be a homecoming for Essex, who was born and raised in Beatrice and graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
“It’s really wonderful and humbling to have this opportunity,” Essex said in a statement. “We’ll actively listen to understand our communities’ key issues and work every day to serve Omaha and Nebraska with thoughtful, essential civic journalism.”
Essex will fill a position left by Melissa Matczak, who resigned as executive editor in August to take a corporate communication position.
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