Kevin Wendt leaves the Merc to become editor in Huntsville, Ala.
Poynter’s Jim Romenesko posted the official notice this afternoon…
Mercury News Executive Editor Dave Butler and Managing Editor Dave Satterfield announced:
Folks:
We’re saddened to announce that Kevin Wendt is leaving the Mercury News to become editor of the Huntsville Times, in Huntsville, Ala.
Kevin will be among the youngest newspaper editors in the country, and it’s no surprise to any of us. Since his arrival at the Mercury News in 2000 — wearing a degree from Northern Illinois University and a black eye delivered by some thugs he exposed in the campus newspaper — Kevin has shown an incredible aptitude for this business.
He’s tackled a variety of roles, from page one designer to his current role as assistant managing editor for Sports and the Copy and Design desks. In between, he’s been news design director, an assistant business editor and part-time Page One news editor. Kevin even spent time in Biloxi, Miss., after Hurricane Katrina, helping the Sun-Herald in its Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage.
Kevin has won all sorts of page design awards and has helped lead the newspaper to lofty heights in the design world. He’s been our liason with the production department, and he has earned the respect of folks throughout the building. We’ll miss him greatly.
His last day will be June 18 – he wants to be here for the launch of JazBox super-user training!
We’ll be looking for a replacement. If you are interested, or know someone who would be good for the job, please let us know.
Ho. Lee. Cow.
Kevin was named an Outstanding Young Alumni at Northern Illinois in 2004. The UNI student paper told the story behind the black eye:
On his first day as a news designer for the San Jose Mercury News, Kevin Wendt showed up with a black eye, and a war story: The night before graduation, he’d been attacked in a bar by the ex-Student Association president, whom the Northern Star had gotten impeached.
“It was the greatest icebreaker I will ever have in any job for the rest of my life,” Kevin says. “I would tell people that story and they’d be like, ‘This guy’s hard core.’”
The Mercury News took Kevin’s ID photo that first day, and it’s still on his badge. In a newspaper world where hard-nosed reporters view designers with suspicion, the black eye revealed a kid with a passion for tough journalism.
Kevin graduated from Northern Illinois in 2000 and immediately went to work at the Merc as a designer. A year later, he was promoted to News Design Director. In 2005, he was named Assistant Business Editor. And later still, he was named AME for the Sports, Copy and Design desks.
Kevin vonders vere everyone wendt after SND/
Boston last October. Photo by Kenney Marlatt.
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The Huntsville Times is a 60,000-circulation daily located in the rolling hills of northern Alabama. Big industries there are munitions, telecommunications and technology — especially space technology. There’s an enormous German influence there: Remember the German rocket scientists who moved to the U.S. after World War II? This is where they settled in the 1950s to build what eventually became the Saturn V rocket.
The Times is an Advance Publications/Newhouse paper.
The first three folks to comment on the news at the SND/Update page were three other brilliant visual journalists who no longer work at the Merc: Matt Mansfield, Tim Ball and Nick Masuda. Check it out here.
The story was also picked up by Editor & Publisher. Find it here.
Find Kevin’s design work in his NewsPageDesigner portfolio.
Congratulations, Kevin! Best wishes in Alabama!
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UPDATE:
The SND/Update blog posted a nice Q&A with Kevin, who ruminates on his career, his decision to move into an editor’s position in Alabama, and the future of newspapers.
May 21st, 2008 at 10:29 am
Kevin: Congratulations on the promotion. I agree that Huntsville just landed the steal of the “design” draft. It is exciting and inspiring to see designers move into top editing roles at newspapers, much like Denis Finley did at The Pilot a couple years back. Great work, Kevin.