GREENFIELD — Michael Rifanburg has been named publisher of The Recorder, the Daily Hampshire Gazette, as well as related digital and print publications. All are part of Newspapers of New England, a family owned company.
Rifanburg, who has more than 30 years of experience in newspapers, has spent most of his career in his native upstate New York. He started in advertising sales and worked for Park Communications, Gannett, Dow Jones (Ottaway), Scotsman Press and Lee Enterprise, where he was publisher of The Citizen in Auburn, N.Y.
After a brief stint in the financial services sector, Rifanburg became publisher of Finance and Commerce, the daily business newspaper of Minneapolis, Minn., and was also publisher of a related twice-weekly political newspaper, a weekly law newspaper and the associated digital publications.
Rifanburg brings his years of experience in advertising, management, and news to the Recorder, Gazette, Amherst Bulletin, Valley Advocate and digital publications. “I’m excited to join the dedicated and award-winning teams at the Gazette, The Recorder and the Advocate,” Rifanburg said. “Their ongoing work to keep pace with changes in how people read, shop and interact with each other online, and their commitment to journalism and its contribution to strong communities, really captured my attention.” Rifanburg succeeds Dennis Skoglund, who is retiring at the end of March after more than 25 years with the company.
“Mike’s combination of a career spent in community newspapers, decades of experience in sales, love of news, quiet leadership and creative thinking made him a perfect successor to Dennis,” said Aaron Julien, president of Newspapers of New England. “Like Dennis, he’s solid as a rock.”
Newspapers of New England, Inc. is based in New Hampshire and through its subsidiaries publishes the Concord Monitor, (concordmonitor.com), the Valley News (vnews.com), the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript (ledgertranscript.com) in Peterborough, N.H., The Recorder, (recorder.com), the Daily Hampshire Gazette in Northampton, (gazettenet.com), the alternative weekly the Valley Advocate, also in Northampton, (valleyadvocate.com), the Amherst Bulletin in Amherst, (amherstbulletin.com), and other print and digital publications. NNE also provides commercial printing services for many daily, weekly and periodical publications from its three press locations.