By LARRY AMES
Ventura County (Calif.) Star

Beth Bragg

But the 12-year sports editor has tired of the paperwork surrounding the job and two months ago became the paper's metro columnist, succeeding the retired Mike Doogan.

"The focus of my job was more and more management and more paperwork and training sessions. I was doing less reporting, and writing has always been my love," she said.

The Billings, Montana, native has come a long way since leaving Vanderbilt as a sophomore in 1978 to join the sports staff of Bozeman Chronicle.

The Daily News certainly gives its readers a wide variety of content, despite a sports staff totaling 12.

The Sunday newspaper contains a special outdoors section and a local wrap with zoned sports coverage. This is in addition to the regular sports section. Its 48-page Iditarod preview is one of the top special sections each year.

"We have a fairly industrious staff with not a lot of down time," said Bragg. "We run a lot of outdoors, including a lot of nontraditional sports like mountain running, ski jouring, cross country skiing, biathlon and mountain climbing."

The Daily News also covers its prep and college teams and regularly travels with its Alaska-Anchorage Division I college hockey team.

"Our readers tend to participate rather than be spectators," said Bragg.

Bragg, who came to Anchorage in 1986, became an assistant sports editor in 1990 and became sports editor in 1992.

Since moving to news, Bragg says she has learned "that people are more suspicious of a metro reporter than a sports reporter."

"There are different people and different kinds of issues. When you get into policy and politics, you certainly need to do your homework. You don't want to get anything wrong or make a bonehead mistake," she said.

In the meantime, the paper has gone right to the top for her interim replacement. Managing editor Mike Campbell will take her job until a replacement can be found.

San Diego Union-Tribune: Hired Eddie Ibardolasa of the L.A. Daily News as a copy editor. ... Hired Brent Schrotenboer as an enterprise/GA reporter. Schrotenboer was the Auburn beat writer for the Mobile (Ala.) Register.

Orange County Register: Hired Mark Conley as assistant sports editor for high schools. Conley was the sports editor at the Santa Cruz Sentinel. ... Promoted David Bean from high school editor to college editor. ... Hired Miguel Melendez as a part-timer covering high schools.

San Francisco Chronicle: Hired Janny Hu, who completed a Hearst Newspapers fellowship at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, as an NBA and general assignment reporter.

Marin Independent Journal: Named Ryan Metcalfe, formerly a sports copy editor at the IJ, to the prep sports editor position. Hired Jason Wilson as a sports copy editor/page designer.

Riverside Press-Enterprise: Hired Las Vegas Review-Journal assistant sports editor Brian VanHook as a news copy editor.

Miami Herald: Hired Steve Zimmerman, the former senior sports designer at the Post-Tribune in Merrillville, Ind., as a member of the presentation desk, where he will focus on sports. He will help coordinate the daily design of the section and assist with special section production. Prior to joining the Herald and Post-Tribune, Zimmerman worked at the Rockford Register Star as a sports copy editor/designer, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as an online sports producer and St. Augustine Record as a reporter/designer. ... Hired Fred Gonzalez, assistant sports editor at The Washington Post, as deputy sports editor supervising reporters including coverage of the NBA, NHL and auto racing. ... Hired Drew van Esselstyn, zone sports editor at The Washington Post, as Sunday sports editor. ... Hired Monica Hare, copy editor at the Palm Beach Post, as a copy editor. ... Hired Alex Mena, editor in The Herald's Broward newsroom, as assistant sports editor/Broward. ... Promoted Nunzio Ingrassia to full-time copy editor. ... Promoted reporter George Richards, Broward high school reporter, to Panthers beat writer. ... Promoted reporter David J. Neal, Panthers beat writer, to national NFL and GA reporter.

Lakeland Ledger: Named Larry Everhart assistant sports editor. Everhart was a news copy editor at The Ledger.

Florida Times-Union: Hired sports editor Scott Kendrick of the Willoughby (Ohio) News Herald as assistant sports editor.

Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel: Hired former sports copy editor Allen Cone of the Las Vegas Review-Journal as a news copy editor.

Florence (Ala.) Daily Times: Hired Gregg Dewalt as a writer/copy editor.

Mobile (Ala.) Register: Hired Evan Woodbery to cover the Auburn University beat. Woodbery comes to the Register from The State in Columbia, S.C., and he previously worked at The Anniston Star. Woodbery is living full-time in Auburn, which is a change from the way the beat has been covered in the past.

St. Joseph News-Press: Hired Clark Grell, a former news reporter at the Columbus (Neb.) Telegram as a copy editor/paginator.

Claremore (Okla.) Daily Progress: Hired Charles Ward as sports editor after a stint as sports editor of the International Falls (Minn.) Daily Journal.

Ottawa (Ill.) Daily Times: Hired Charlie Ellerbrock of the Bureau County Republican in Princeton, Ill., as a sports writer.

Minneapolis Star Tribune: Moved Michael Rand from high school sports to beat writer for the University of Minnesota women's basketball team.

Terra Haute (Ind.) Tribune Star: Hired Todd Golden, sports editor of the Eau Claire (Wis.) Leader Telegram, as sports editor. Former sports editor Mark Bennett, who was sports editor for 11 years, is now a general columnist/feature writer at the Tribune Star.

Canton (Ohio) Repository: Hired Scott Brown, formerly of the Elyria (Ohio) Chronicle Telegram, as a sports designer.

Chicago Tribune: Longtime stats editor Johnny Rosenstein left for Florida and a job with CBS.sportsline.com as assistant sports editor.

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Send personnel moves to Larry Ames by calling (805) 655-5818 or send an e-mail message to lames@venturacountystar.com.