General Manager and Advertising Director of The Alpena News Christie Werda

ALPENA — Christie Werda has been named general manager and advertising director of The Alpena News.

Mike Bird, group publisher for the Ogden Newspapers, made the announcement. Wednesday marked Werda’s first official day in her new role.

Werda is an Alpena native who most recently served as advertising director of The Alpena News. In her new role as general manager, she will have oversight over the newspapers’ editorial staffs and circulation departments along with the advertising representatives and printing press employees.

She said the newspaper and its digital platform, thealpenanews.com, would continue to be the leading news source for the city and region known as “The Sanctuary of the Great Lakes.”

“Serving our communities through sound coverage of local issues, principled leadership on our opinion pages and continued opportunities for our business partners to share their message will remain our top priority,” Werda said. “The Alpena News has excelled at this for nearly 126 years and that won’t change under my leadership.”

Werda learned the newspaper business from the ground floor up. She began at The Alpena News 24 years ago, succeeding in roles from a part-time classified sales representative to, most recently, advertising manager. Bird said her commitment to the newspaper and also to the greater Alpena community will serve local readers well.

“Christie understands the issues that are most important to Alpena and the surrounding communities and can work with other leaders throughout the region to help address those matters,” Bird said. “She was the clear choice to lead The Alpena News, and we look forward to working with her well into the future as she leads this newspaper.”

For her part, Werda said the opportunity to lead the newspaper she grew up with — both personally and professionally — is the job of a lifetime. She also commended The Alpena News’ staff for its dedication.

“I just want to continue the long legacy we’ve had here at The Alpena News in serving our communities,” she said. “We cover the meetings, we publish the meeting notices, we are at the sporting events, we provide frames for pictures in the newspaper so our readers have keepsakes and memories … we’re doing everything we can to ensure our community has the information it needs to know what’s going on and to make sound decisions.

“I really do love how this newspaper binds this community together — it’s really exciting to be leading this group.”