Business

Acclaimed journalist Steve Wick joins Times Review staff

Veteran Long Island journalist Steve Wick has joined the staff of Times Review Media Group as executive editor.

Steve, who spent nearly the past four decades as a reporter and editor at Newsday, started in his new role Monday. He will oversee editorial functions and manage the staff at the company’s three newspapers: The Suffolk Times, Riverhead News-Review and Shelter Island Reporter.

“We are incredibly excited and fortunate to have someone with Steve’s credentials to lead our news team,” said Times Review publisher Andrew Olsen. “He’s a prolific journalist with deep local roots who will help us evolve our news brands so they remain essential sources for our readers.”

A longtime Cutchogue resident, Steve began his career at Newsday in 1978 and has won dozens of awards for his work, including sharing in two Pulitzer Prizes for local reporting. During his tenure at Newsday he headed the company’s investigations team and worked on several creative projects, including a highly regarded local history series and a two-year project documenting the lives of six families struggling with the emotional and financial effects of Alzheimer’s disease. Steve also wrote a series of stories for Newsday about a farm labor camp on Depot Lane in Cutchogue, following the lives of its residents until the camp was destroyed by fire. Reporters he worked with also won many prestigious awards, including Columbia University’s Berger Award, given for in-depth, human interest reporting, and the Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting from the University of Southern California.

An inaugural member of the Press Club of Long Island’s Journalism Hall of Fame, Steve is also the author of several books, including “Heaven and Earth: The Last Farmers of the North Fork.”

“I am thrilled to work for a creative group of journalists whose goals are the best writing, storytelling and reporting on the North Fork,” he said.

Grant Parpan, who had served as executive editor since August 2012, will now serve as content director for Times Review Partners — a newly created brand marketing division of the company. He will also continue to oversee editorial content for Times Review’s lifestyle brands — northforker and the Long Island Wine Press — and its multimedia staff.

“Times Review Partners is a concept we’ve been developing for some time now and is an ambitious project I’m excited to lead from a content standpoint,” Grant said. “In my decade-plus here at Times Review I’ve really seen a shift in how the business community works together across the North Fork. This is our way of strengthening partnerships with local businesses and connecting them to each other through branded content and sponsorship opportunities.”

Grant previously led the company’s editorial effort to transition from a weekly newspaper company to a daily digital publisher.

During his tenure as executive editor, the company launched the northforker website and magazine and expanded the Long Island Wine Press. The Suffolk Times and News-Review both won top prizes from the New York Press Association, Press Club of Long Island and National Newspaper Association under his editorial direction.

In his new role, he’ll work with Times Review sales and marketing director Sonja Reinholt Derr and her staff to create content for clients.

In addition to his new responsibilities creating branded content, Grant will continue to write for the company’s lifestyle brands and generate business stories for all Times Review publications. He will no longer contribute opinion pieces or be involved in the day-to-day editorial decisions of the company’s newspapers and news websites.

In another newsroom hire, Stony Brook University graduate Rachel Siford began her career as a general assignment reporter last week. She will cover a variety of topics for both the News-Review and The Suffolk Times.

Times Review also added a new advertising sales executive this spring in Debbie Schultz. A former account executive for Honeywell, where she handled global accounts, she is a resident of Jamesport.

“Debbie has two decades of experience in sales and is a great addition to our team,” Sonja said.

Debbie is handling a number of accounts in both the News-Review and The Suffolk Times coverage areas.