Sun makes key additions to staff

Sunday, Jan. 15, 2006 | 7:51 a.m.

Las Vegas Sun

Five new senior-level editors have joined the Las Vegas Sun, Michael J. Kelley, managing editor, announced today.

"These are all skilled, experienced editors who will be important in helping the Sun fulfill its mission of being the in-depth daily newspaper of Las Vegas," Kelley said.

Two are deputy managing editors who will report directly to him, Kelley said -- Drex Heikes and Bill Gaspard, both of whom left positions at the Los Angeles Times to come to the Sun.

Heikes, who will concntrate on the news report, was managing editor of the Anchorage Times and then was metro editor of the Fresno Bee before joining the Los Angeles Times as metro editor of its San Fernando Valley edition in 1978. He was promoted to Washington bureau assignment editor, was editor of the Sunday magazine for eight years and most recently was deputy editor of Current, the Times' Sunday editorial and op-ed section.

After the 9/11 attack Heikes was detached from the magazine and sent to New York to direct 32 reporters and editors in covering the attack's aftermath.

Gaspard, who will concentrate on the Sun's design, graphics and photography, was most recently news design director at the Los Angeles Times, where he supervised a staff of 40 designers who produced the news, sports and business pages. Prior to that he was senior editor/visuals and then senior editor/readership at the San Diego Union-Tribune, where he spent 12 years. He also worked in design editing positions at the Kansas City Star for five years.

Gaspard redesigned the Sun in 1998 and again last fall, giving the paper its current look. He also designed the Sun's companion papers, the weekly In Business Las Vegas and the News community weeklies, which are circulated in seven editions in Henderson, Boulder City, Summerlin, Spring Valley and the Lakes. He is the recent past president of the Society for News Design, an international organization with more than 2,500 members.

Barry M. Horstman is a new assistant managing editor for the Sun. He came to the Sun from the Cincinnati Post and the Kentucky Post, where he was assistant managing editor for local news. He will concentrate on the same area of coverage for the Sun.

At the Post, Horstman also served as city editor and as special projects reporter. Before that he spent 12 years in the Los Angeles Times San Diego bureau covering city hall and politics, and prior to that he served in the Scripps-Howard Washington Bureau. Scripps owns the Post.

The Sun's new director of photography is Karin Anderson. She started as a freelance photographer for the Washington Post and the New York Times, then was a staff photographer and news picture editor for the Detroit Free Press from 1995 to 1998, and was picture editor of Sun Publications in suburban Chicago.

Bryan Volk is the Sun's new assistant design director. Volk was a page designer for the Charlotte Observer and then the Los Angeles Times. Before coming to the Sun he worked at Walt Disney Co.

Kelley also announced that Matt Hufman, who has been the Sun's metro editor for four years, has been promoted to associate editor. Hufman will continue to concentrate on the local news report.