Menu
New publisher, other staff changes at Gazette
Shary Skiles today became the sixth publisher in the 96-year-history of the McCook Daily Gazette.
She advanced to the leadership position after 18 years of service as the Gazette's business manager and general manager.
Skiles succeeds Gene Morris, who retired from the publisher's duties at year's end to devote time to writing and special projects.
The Gazette's first publisher was Harry Strunk, who founded the newspaper in 1911. Harry served as the newspaper's leader until his death in 1960. He was succeeded by his son, Allen Strunk, who served as publisher until the Gazette was sold on the last day of 1986. Others who have served as publisher are Dick Gozia, John Burgess and Gene Morris, who took over the post in 1990 and served through the end of 2006.
Shary's advancement to publisher opened the way for two other promotions at the Gazette. Janet Werkmeister, who formerly served as the accounts receivable coordinator, has been named business manager, and Donna Houghtelling, the former circulation clerk, has become the new accounts receivable coordinator.
"Both Janet and Donna have earned advancement through superior performance," Skiles said. "I look forward to working with them to provide excellent service to the Gazette's readers and advertisers."
Shary Skiles
Sharyn (Bell) Skiles was born and raised in Red Cloud. She graduated from high school there in 1981 and enrolled at McCook Community College, where she earned her Applied Science diploma. She continued her education by taking business management classes from Kearney State College through McCook's expanded campus program.
She remained in McCook following college, taking a job with Dayco (now Parker Hannifin) as a cost accountant and marrying Doug Skiles, a Certified Public Accountant.
Shary joined the Gazette as business manager in 1988 and became general manager in 2004.
Doug and Shary are the parents of two children: Megan, 15, and Ben, 11.
Shary has been an active member of the community. Her past roles include being the coordinator for McCook United Way, serving on Red Willow County Election Board, graduating from Leadership McCook, and serving as secretary-treasurer for North Ward Elementary Parent-Teacher Organization.
She is a member of Memorial United Methodist Church, where she serves as treasurer, and McCook Arts Council where she also holds the office of treasurer.
Wally Lage, the chief operating officer of Rust Communications, the newspaper company with which the Gazette is associated, stated "We are delighted to have a person with Shary's skills to assume leadership in McCook. Through her service as general manager, Shary has demonstrated a keen knowledge of newspaper operations and a dedication to customer and community service. McCook is a valuable member of the Rust team and we look forward to working with Shary and the Gazette staff to make a good product even better."
"I'm fortunate," Skiles said. "The Gazette has a sound management team and a top-notch group of employees in place. In the future, as in the past, we will continue to place emphasis on strong areawide news coverage. To serve the area, we have a staff of 48 employees and 90 carriers. In addition to printing a daily newspaper, we also print more than 15 other publications, including the Big Nickel and nine weekly newspapers in Kansas and Nebraska.
Janet Werkmeister
Janet (Stevens) Werk-meister, the Gazette's new business manager, grew up in Beatrice and Palisade. She married her high school sweetheart, Roger Werkmeister, and they settled in the McCook area.
After starting a family that includes three sons-Travis, Troy and Roger Jr.-Janet joined the staff of the Gazette in 1993. In the years since, she has done many different jobs, including inserting, pasteup, advertising proofing, circulation and classified advertising. She took over the accounts receivable desk in April 2000, and enrolled in accounting and computer classes at McCook Community College to prepare for her promotion to business manager.
Janet's husband, Roger, is a transport owner-operator for Crete Carriers. He hauls exclusively for Wal-Mart.
In her leisure time, Janet enjoys reading and playing with her grandkids.
Donna Houghtelling
Donna (Kutz) Hough-telling grew up in Portland, Ore., but often visited relatives in the Indianola and McCook area. It was here that she met her husband, Dennis Houghtelling. The Houghtellings had their own business, the Butcher Block in Indianola, and Donna also worked for Indianola Oil Co.
She joined the Gazette as an advertising sales representative in 2002, and transferred to circulation accounting in 2005. Donna has long had an interest in working with numbers, which inspired her transfer to the account receivable post.The Houghtellings have two children: Jerod of Billings, Mont., and Abby, a sophomore at Southwest High School. Donna's husband, Dennis, is a USDA meat inspector in Lexington.