Review-Journal names new editor

Michael Hengel, editor and publisher of the Pine Bluff (Ark.) Commercial, has been named editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Publisher Bob Brown announced Wednesday.

Hengel, 56, will start work on Dec. 6, succeeding longtime Editor Thomas Mitchell, who recently was named the paper's senior opinion editor.

His hire comes amid a flurry of change at the newspaper. Longtime Publisher Sherman Frederick stepped down two weeks ago and was replaced by Brown, who was advertising director. Michael Ferguson replaced Frederick as chief executive officer of Stephens Media, which owns the Review-Journal. Ferguson had been the company's chief operating officer.

Brown said Hengel will bring a fresh approach to covering the news in Las Vegas.

"We need to be as dynamic and exciting as the community that we serve," the new publisher said. "And I think when people pick up the R-J, we want them to be engaged in what they're reading, and I think that we can do that."

Ferguson has worked with Hengel at newspapers in Vallejo and Ontario, Calif., and Pine Bluff.

"There is not a finer journalist in our industry or a better person," Ferguson said. "The readers of the Review-Journal will be very well-served with Mike as our editor in Las Vegas."

Hengel said he looks forward to connecting with readers and the newsroom. He said he wants to assess the paper before charting any new course.

"I'm looking forward to listening to what readers of the Review-Journal would like their newspaper to become and then working with the staff to deliver what the readers want," he said.

Hengel has worked at three different Arkansas newspapers and has published daily newspapers in Oklahoma and Michigan.

As editor and publisher of The Commercial since 2008, Hengel is responsible for all aspects of the Stephens Media newspaper, from content and printing to distribution and ad sales. He served as editor of the paper in a previous stint from 1987 to 1991. He also served as editor at the Ontario and Vallejo papers.

The Review-Journal is the largest Stephens Media newspaper, with a daily circulation of 160,000. The Pine Bluff Commercial has a daily circulation of about 12,000.

The Danville, Ill., native was raised in St. Louis and graduated in 1976 from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. He and his wife, Brenda, have four grown children.

Hengel said he has visited Las Vegas but never lived here. He said he is impressed by the dynamism of the city.

"It's unlike any city I've ever been to," he said.

He said serving as editor of the Review-Journal would be "an honor and a privilege."

"I have been a newspaperman my entire career. It's all I've ever done," he said. "This will be a great challenge."

Hengel, a First Amendment advocate, in 1990 led the fight to secure open records for The Commercial. The case led to greater openness of public records in Arkansas.

Hengel has been active in the communities in which he has lived, volunteering for the United Way, the YMCA, arts centers, symphonies, women's shelters and community foundations. Other affiliations include the Arkansas Press Association Foundation Board of Directors, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff as an adjunct professor of journalism, and the American Society of Newspaper Editors. He is a member of the First United Methodist Church in Pine Bluff, where he serves on the finance committee.

Brown said both he and Hengel will be engaged with readers and the community.

"I think what we need to do is look at Las Vegas as a community," Brown said, "and create a dialogue with Las Vegas -- in terms of what we need as a community, what our aspirations are, our hopes and dreams are, what our challenges are -- and then develop strategies for achieving those goals."

Contact reporter Lawrence Mower at lmower@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0440.