Veteran journalist Larry Holeva has been appointed managing editor of The Citizens' Voice, Publisher W. Scott Lynett announced Wednesday. 

Holeva, a 21-year newsman who spent the last four years as assistant managing editor of The Scranton Times-Tribune, will succeed the retiring Paul Golias on Nov. 26. "Larry Holeva's experience as a reporter, copy editor, designer and assistant managing editor - combined with his natural leadership ability - make him a great addition to The Citizens' Voice newsroom," Lynett said. 

Jim Gittens, a 25-year veteran at The Citizens' Voice, will become an assistant managing editor. He previously served as editorial page editor and city editor. "It is my goal to come in and build on the successes The Citizens' Voice has had," said Holeva, 39, of Dickson City. "I want to reinforce the principles of solid journalism, which are to be fair, to be balanced and to be accurate in our coverage."

Holeva has devoted most of the last four years to recruiting and staff development at The Times-Tribune. He plans a similar strategy in his new role at The Citizens' Voice. "I hope to come in and give people in the newsroom the opportunity to be the best they can be at what they do," he said. "I hope to do that through teaching and nurturing."

No immediate changes are planned in the newsroom staff of 42, Holeva said, although he does plan to "assess and observe and talk" to people in the newsroom and the community. The new editor said he best identifies with a newspaper that aggressively covers the news and people of the community in interesting ways.

"I like a newspaper that has a lot of ideas and approaches stories from interesting points of view," he said. "I like a newspaper that is not afraid to shake things up." Holeva covered a variety of beats as a reporter at The Scranton Times-Tribune and the former Scrantonian Tribune. He has wide knowledge in beat reporting having covered municipal government, courts, police, sports and professional baseball.

Since 1999, Holeva has overseen the night news operation at The Times-Tribune. He also supervised sports, features, photography, graphics and design. He previously held positions of regional news reporter, baseball beat writer, assistant sports editor, design editor and metro editor.

Holeva, who studied journalism at Penn State University, began his career at the Scrantonian Tribune. He said he enjoyed the competition when The Scranton Times and Tribune were separately owned newspapers chasing news stories and trying to win readers.

"It was exciting to come into the newsroom every day when we were going head-to-head for stories," Holeva said. "It's a lot of fun when you're out there chasing someone to break stories." While helping The Citizens' Voice convert the Sunday paper from tabloid to broadsheet in the spring of 2003, Holeva detected that same competitive fire.

"I found there are people (in the newsroom) who are interested and eager to grow," he said. "They take the competition really seriously." Gittens, 54, will be responsible for the daily news report and planning in his new role as assistant managing editor. "Jim Gittens has extensive knowledge of our area, far-reaching community ties and proven people skills," Lynett said. "He and Larry Holeva will be a great team to lead the best newsroom in the Wyoming Valley."

Gittens spent the past year as city editor at The Citizens' Voice. He spent the previous 25 years as editorial page editor. Prior to working at The Citizens' Voice, he was a reporter for a large metropolitan newspaper in New Jersey and editor for a weekly newspaper group in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

He earned his master's degree in journalism from Penn State University, and he won 12 awards for journalism excellence from the Society of Professional Journalists and Pennsylvania Newspaper Association. Gittens said he looks forward to working with Holeva "to do great things, to make The Voice better and better."

"I appreciate the confidence our publisher Scott Lynett has put in me," Gittens said. "The Citizens' Voice is made up of great people, a great journalism tradition and especially great commitment to the community. I'm proud to be a part of it."