-- The Baytown Sun announced two changes in its advertising department.

Gordon Gallatin is the new advertising director. He spent 17 years with The Houston Post before joining Houston Community Newspapers.

Jim Wadzinski is a new account executive. He also was with HCN and has 35 years sales experience.

-- Belo Corp. announced the senior executive team that will lead A.H. Belo Corp. upon completion of Belo’s plan to spin off its newspaper businesses and related assets.

Robert W. Decherd, current chairman and chief executive officer of Belo Corp., will assume the role of chairman, president and chief executive officer of A.H. Belo Corp., while also serving as non-executive chairman of Belo Corp.

James M. “Jim” Moroney III will become executive vice president of A.H. Belo. Moroney will continue to be the publisher and chief executive officer of the Morning News. He also will join Belo Corp.’s Board of Directors following the completion of the spin-off.

Donald F. “Skip” Cass Jr. also will be an executive vice president of A.H. Belo overseeing Internet, business development and technology.

-- Tania French was named publisher of the Port Lavaca Wave. She had been interim publisher following the departure of Steve Bales. French has been with the Wave since 2000 and had been general manager since 2005.

-- Annette Fuller left her post as managing editor of the Denton Record-Chronicle to join Journalism Development Group. The agency helps newspapers in emerging democracies adopt international journalism standards. Her first assignment will be in Algeria.

-- The Houston Chronicle announced two staff changes.

Tony Freemantle has been named metro editor. He had been interim metro editor since August and has been at the Chronicle for 25 years. He also worked at The Houston Post and in his native South Africa.

Carlton Thompson was named sports editor. He had been assistant sports editor since 2005. He also worked at The Houston Post from 1992-95.

-- Janice Law was a finalist for the Velvet Crown Book Award given by the Texas Writers’ League. She is a columnist for The Galveston County Daily News. The non-fiction book is “Yield: A Judge’s First-Year Diary.”

-- Raymond Linex II has been named publisher of the Corsicana Daily Sun. He had been serving as interim publisher since the fall. Linex joined the Sun in 1992 and in 1993 became full time. He was co-sports editor in 1996, left briefly and returned in 1998 as sports editor. He was named managing editor in 2000.

Bob Belcher was promoted to managing editor. He had been assistant editor and a staff writer since joining the staff in 2006. Before that he also was a contributing columnist since 2004.

-- Sandy Manning retired as editor of the Ennis Daily News. In 2004 she was named features and opinion editor. She spent 15 years working at a suburban Dallas newspaper group and came to Ennis from The Dallas Morning News.

Randy Bryan Bigham was named her successor.

-- Glenn McCutchen will retire as publisher of the Longview News Journal at month’s end. He had served in the role since 1997 and previously was editor and publisher of sister newspapers The Daily Sentinel in Nacogdoches and the Lufkin Daily News. He started with Cox Newspapers in 1966.

-- Richard Nelson rejoined the Jacksonville Daily Progress as editor. He previously worked there from August 2001 to June 2003. He also has worked at The Sealy News, The Baytown Sun, Fort Stockton Pioneer, The Houston Post and Orange Leader.

-- The Perryton Herald announced two new staff members.

Hugh Parker joined as reporter and photographer, and Doris Clardy is an advertising salesperson. Parker recently returned to Perryton after 25 years. Clardy had been general manager of a group of convenience stores.

-- Nikki Rowden is a new staff writer at Today Newspapers. She graduated from Prairie View A&M University in 2006.

-- Texas Press Association hired two new client services representatives in the summer.

Diane Guffey and Leigh Gibson joined the staff in July.

Guffey came from Pipe World where she worked as an assistant manager and helped with the company’s advertising needs.

Gibson is a May 2007 graduate of Texas State University in San Marcos. In high school she worked at The Hometown Press in Winnie.

-- Anthony Wilson, managing editor at the San Angelo Standard-Times, took a job with the city’s civic events department. Wilson had been with the paper for more than three years and in newspapers for 19 years.