The News-Item

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The News-Item is the main newspaper serving the City of Shamokin, Pennsylvania and the surrounding areas. It is based in Shamokin. It is owned by Times-Shamrock Communications.

The paper is headed by Greg Zyla and Andy Heintzelman, publisher and managing editor, respectively. Zyla and Heintzelman both write weekly columns: Zyla critiques automobiles, and Heintzelman deals with topical issues.

News editors include Eric "Shick" Scicchitano, Dave Kisela, Mallory Szymanski and Paul "Pablo" Metrocavage. Staff writers include Mark Gilger, Rob "Kaiser" Wheary, Domenick "Zorro" Moore and Rachel Carta.

John Usalis serves as the Ashland bureau chief.

The sports department consists of Editor Charlie Roth and writers Chuck "Sooders" Souders and Dan "Beast of" Burda.

Mike "Frog" Staugaitis and Julie Nicolov serve as the paper's photojournalists. Staugaitis also collates and edits the popular "Sound Off" column, a public forum-style feature where readers can air out their concerns or offer congratulations or criticism. Staugaitis will occasionally offer a witty and humorous opinion via his "Frog's Take" response. Nicolov writes a weekly column, "Don't Get Me Started," that runs every Friday. In it, Nicolov tackles anything that catches her fancy, from local to national topics.

The prepress and IT departments are run by Glenn Knarr Jr., and includes Web master Scott Griffiths, Jessica Hine and Amber Bebenek.

Zyla moves to Towanda, Pa. in Sept. of 2008 as he has been promoted to the company's Daily Review newspaper, where he will serve as publisher. Zyla has also been named President of Towanda Printing Company, a new printing facility that prints over 30 publications weekly. Ten of the publications are owned by Times-Shamrock. Zyla will also oversee his parent company's nine weekly newspapers in the Community Weekly Group, which stretch from Ithaca, New York to Stroudsburg, Pa. Dave Barry is the Weekly Group General Manager, who will report to Zyla.