CHICAGO -- Veteran journalist Greg Erlandson, president and publisher of Our Sunday Visitor, has been elected president of the Catholic Press Association.
In ballot results announced June 2, Robert DeFrancesco, associate publisher of The Catholic Sun in Phoenix, was elected vice president. Mark Zimmermann, editor of the Catholic Standard in Washington, also was nominated for the position.
Franciscan Father Pat McCloskey, an editor at St. Anthony Messenger and a longtime educator, also was nominated for the president's post.
Matthew Schiller, business/advertising manager at Catholic New York, is the association's new treasurer and Malea Hargett, editor of the Arkansas Catholic, was elected secretary.
Erlandson has held editor positions with Our Sunday Visitor and its publishing division and worked for Catholic News Service in its Rome bureau from 1986 to 1989. Previously, he was news editor of the National Catholic Register when it was based in Los Angeles.
Officers are elected by members to two-year terms. Their terms begin at the close of the Catholic Media Convention, which is being held June 22-24 in Pittsburgh.
The annual convention brings together members of the CPA, the Catholic Academy for Communication Arts Professionals and the Association of Roman Catholic Communicators of Canada.