Herald

The Herald-Mail is among three area newspapers participating in JobFetch.com , a comprehensive regional job board that is to be launched today. In addition to The Herald-Mail, participating newspapers include The Frederick News-Post and The Free Lance-Star of Fredericksburg, Va. The job board will showcase opportunities from employers in Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and surrounding areas. With thousands of postings updated daily, as well as the most advanced technology available, JobFetch.

HAGERSTOWN -- The Herald-Mail Co. has cut six jobs because of poor economic conditions, Editor and Publisher John League said Thursday. Three of the jobs were in the newsroom and three were in the Advertising Department. The six positions represented 4.5 percent of the company's work force, a drop from 132 jobs to 126 jobs. League said the move was a difficult one, but was necessitated by the economy. Because the newspaper depends on advertisers' money, "when their business is bad, our business is bad," he said.

HAGERSTOWN - The Herald-Mail won 24 awards and was named the 2004 Newspaper of the Year for its division by the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association on Friday. The Herald-Mail has been recognized as Newspaper of the Year for four consecutive years and has received the honor nine of the last 12 years. The newspaper's awards included 13 first-place honors and one Best in Show, given to the best entry in a category among six divisions. The divisions are based on newspaper circulation.

Scott Stavrakas has been hired as advertising director of The Herald-Mail Co., effective today. Stavrakas will lead The Herald-Mail's advertising department, and ultimately be responsible for all advertising that appears in the newspaper, all newspaper-related products and the Web site. Since December 1998, he has been an advertising director for Madison Newspapers, a group of weekly and daily newspapers in the Madison, Wis., area. The papers are part of the Lee newspaper group.

This is the place for pie-in-the-sky dreams. The Herald-Mail is launching what we expect will be an annual pie contest. We're looking for some of the best pies in the area, and we will publish the most popular recipes in time for Christmas baking. The baker of the grand-prize winning pie will receive $100. Dessert pies only - no pizza pies or potpies. Entries must be a pie-shaped dessert with crust, except no cheesecakes. While Webster's New World College Dictionary includes layer cakes in the definition of pies, we're not accepting layer cakes nor are we accepting cheesecakes.

Ambitious reporters and editors who work on small to mid-sized newspapers often face a tough choice when they reach their mid- to late-20s. Do you continue to work as a reporter and try to jump to the big leagues of reporting: a major metropolitan paper? Or do you cast your lot with a smaller newspaper and jump into the management side of the business? That was the choice facing me and some of my contemporaries at The Herald-Mail in the early to mid-1980s. After some personal and professional soul-searching and agonizing, I came to realize that I'm a small-town boy at heart.

andrewm@herald-mail.com When The Herald-Mail and Public Opinion boys soccer all-star teams square off in the third annual Four Diamonds Senior All-Star Game at Waynesboro High School on Thursday evening, the goals will be the same as those of the first two years. "A win and a grand, that's what we're looking for," Waynesboro coach and event director Steve Tanner said. "We've raised $1,000 two years in a row, and that's what our No. 1 goal is this year, too. " All proceeds from the Maryland vs. Pennsylvania match will go to the Four Diamonds Pediatric Cancer Fund.