Complete Story
06/06/2018
Former Marion Star publisher Jack Bates passes away
Former publisher and CNPA executive director John "Jack" Bates passed away on May 24. Bates, of Scottsdale, Arizona, attended the Rochester Institute of Technology's School of Printing Management.
Bates began his newspaper career as the assistant to the publisher of the family-owned Meadville(Pa.)Tribune. The newspaper sold to Thomson papers in 1972 and Bates became its publisher. He was later publisher and/or president of the Marion(Ohio) Star, the Morgantown(W.V.) Dominion Post, the Hagerstown (Md.) Herald Mailand the Champaign(Ill.) News Gazette. He moved to Sacramento, where he was president and general manager for the Sacramento Union from 1985 to 1989. Bates worked with newspaper broker Mel Hodell before becoming the executive director of the California Newspaper Publishers Association. It was a job he loved and held for 20 years, working well past retirement age. Upon retirement, Bates was honored by the association when the California Press Foundation established the Jack Bates Award for distinguished service.
