Archives: Business
Updated: Wednesday, June 2, 2004 8:46 AM EDT

Larry Nager, Associate Editor for News at The Sunday Challenger, Northern Kentucky's new newspaper.

Nager Named Challenger News Editor

By Melissa Kavanaugh
ChallengerNKY.com

COVINGTON Award-winning journalist Larry Nager has joined The Sunday Challenger, Northern Kentucky's new hard-hitting newspaper, as Associate Editor for News. Nager will be responsible for the Challenger's reporting on city, county and state news, business news, education and real estate. He will also coordinate the reporting in some sections of ChallengerNKY.com, the new Northern Kentucky news and information website.

Nager brings a total of 20 years experience covering music news for The Cincinnati Enquirer; music and hard news for The Cincinnati Post, and music news for The Memphis Commercial Appeal. He authored a book, Memphis Beat, about the music scene in Memphis.

For the past eight years Nager was The Cincinnati Enquirer's music critic. He brought to the job a thorough knowledge of a variety of music including blues, rock, R&B, and bluegrass. He created and produced the annual Cammy Awards, the Enquirer's Pop Music Awards, to help honor and feature local musicians and raise money for music scholarships.

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After reporting for The Cincinnati Post during the 1980s, Nager captured the music scene that was "as much hard news as entertainment news" in Memphis during the Beale Street and riverfront renaissance of the 1990s.

Nager sees Northern Kentucky as more than a suburb of Cincinnati.

"Northern Kentucky has a unique culture in itself," he said. Nager plans to recognize the diversity that is present here. He believes that Northern Kentucky is "tired of being the step-child of Cincinnati" and envisions enabling Northern Kentucky in further developing its own identity.

"Northern Kentucky is enjoying a major growth spurt across the board," Nager said. "Over the past few years I often found myself writing more about nightlife and the entertainment industry on this side of the river than about Cincinnati's scene."

Nager's vision is to give Northern Kentucky a voice for what concerns them like people everywhere quality of air and water, education and quality of life.

"It's exciting being in on the ground floor of a new publication with the opportunity to define the breadth and scope of coverage of such a diverse area."

"We are thrilled to have a journalist with Larry Nager's skills and background to head up our local news report," Sunday Challenger Editor Tom Mitsoff said. "He knows and has covered the market for more than a decade."