Gary Abernathy has been named publisher and editor of The (Hillsboro) Times-Gazette and Highland County Shopper. The announcement was made Wednesday, April 8, 2015, by Nick Monico, regional director, Ohio, for Civitas Media, the newspaper’s parent company.

Abernathy will lead all operations at the newspapers including newsroom, advertising, production and circulation departments. He will be based in Hillsboro.

Abernathy began his career in 1983 as city editor at the Hillsboro Press Gazette, which is today The Times-Gazette. He served as editor of the Press Gazette from 1984-1991, then became city editor of The Marion Star from 1991-1993. He then served as managing editor of the Portsmouth Daily Times from 1993-1996.

Abernathy worked in politics and government for several years in Ohio and West Virginia. He returned to the newspaper business when he was named publisher of The Times-Gazette and County Shopper in September 2011. He then served as a regional content director, working with newspapers across Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia. He will continue to assist with editorial issues regionally as needed.

Abernathy has won numerous industry awards from the Associated Press, the Ohio Newspaper Association and other organizations, including first place for Breaking News Coverage from the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists/Press Club of Cleveland. More recently, Abernathy won first place for Best Use of Multimedia and second place for Best Columnist in the annual Associated Press of Ohio awards.

“I’m excited about the opportunity to lead an outstanding staff at The Times-Gazette and County Shopper,” said Abernathy. “We have great opportunities to utilize all media platforms to achieve revenue growth in our market, while continuing to serve as the leading provider of news and information to our readers.”

Abernathy resides in Hillsboro with his wife, Lora, and is the father of four children, Christina (Wilson), Scott, Jonathan and David.