NHCN makes new hire, editorial promotions

Home Channel News, Nov 9, 1998

NEW YORK National Home Center News has hired a new manager for its Midwest sales territory and promoted two key editorial personnel.

Anita Watkins joined NHCN last month as Midwest area manager, responsible for the western half of the Midwest sales territory. Most recently with Cahners, Watkins covered the south/southeast for Building Design & Construction magazine. Prior to that post, she had been with Cram Communications covering the United States, Canada and United Kingdom territories as a national sales representative for Ad Age as well as the point person for Creativity, a successful new product extension for the Ad Age group.

Her career also includes experience in the newspaper business with the Tribune Company's Sun-Sentinel an(l with Vista Point Publishing located in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. In addition, Watkins sold creative programs in the broadcast and creative arts product businesses in Los Angeles and Chicago.

She reports to NHCN associate publisher Mark Negley.

On the editorial side, NHCN has promoted Scott Larson from executive editor of NHCN's ProDealer magazine to executive editor of NHCN's entire menu of information products, including National Home Center News, ProDealer, NewsFax, International Hardware & DIY News, International Custom Reports, Information Products and National Home Center News On The Web. Larson will share all day-to-day operational duties with NHCN's other executive editor John Caulfield. They are both responsible for making story assignments, copyediting and approving final page proofs. Both Caulfield and Larson report directly to NHCN editor Don Longo.

Larson joined NHCN five years ago in the capacity of associate editor. He has successfully supervised several major reports, including the annual "World Powers of Home Improvement Retailing," "Emerging Markets of Home Improvement Retailing," as well as "International Hardware News" (Cologne and Chicago editions). In 1997, he also served as editor of NHCN's weekly NewsFax, which grew from approximately 950 to over 1,200 subscribers under his leadership.

For the past year, Larson has spearheaded the rollout of ProDealer, NHCN's monthly magazine for dealers who do business primarily with builders, contractors and professional tradesmen.

NHCN also promoted Monica Toriello to the position of associate editor. Toriello joined NHCN two years ago as an editorial assistant after graduating from Columbia University with a B.A. degree in English and in French. She was quickly promoted to field editor on Oct. 13,1997.

In the past year, Toriello has been responsible for a number of outstanding editorial accomplishments, including getting the first in-depth, in-person trade newspaper interview with Hechinger president Mark Schwartz, providing continuing coverage of Lowe's Cos. growth plans, and researching and writing a recently published special section on the labor shortage in the home improvement industry.

Toriello is also a key reporter and regular contributor to NHCN's international reports.