RIO GRANDE — Herald Publisher Art Hall announced that Alfred S. "Al" Campbell has been appointed as managing editor effective immediately.
  Campbell served as assistant managing editor for two years.
  Joe Zelnik is stepping down as editor due to health concerns. As editor emeritus, he will continue to write his award-winning column along with other duties.
  Hall said Zelnik would have a role in the Herald that does not carry the weight of running the entire news operation.
  Campbell will oversee all content of the Herald including audio and video on the Herald's Web site, said Hall.
  "Al and I have worked together for 30 years," he said.
  Hall was former publisher of the Gazette Leader and worked with   Campbell before he came to the Herald.
  "He is extremely hardworking, community minded," said Hall. "He has a servant's heart where the community is concerned."
   "I am extremely glad to welcome Al as the new head of the editorial content of the Herald," he continued.
  Hall said he is pleased with Campbell's willingness to work in new technologies to deliver news such as audio, video and Web.
  Campbell joined the Herald Sept. 1, 1988 as a reporter. He also shot photos.
  Campbell recalls interviewing with the newspaper. Shortly thereafter, the Herald building suffered a fire and nearly burned to the ground. He said he thought that ended his chances for employment with the Herald.
   Surprisingly, the Herald was able to publish that week a 100-page edition that week.
  Campbell worked for the Gazette-Leader for eight and half years.
  His journalism career began as a teen, shooting a photo of a train wreck in Court House. That photo drew the attention of Cape May's Star and Wave newspaper.
  After serving as a radioman in the Navy in Hawaii and aboard USS Gallant (MSO-489), which sailed to South Vietnam, Campbell went to work for the Wildwood Leader as a photographer.
  He moved on to the rival Cape May County Gazette that merged to become the Gazette Leader where he became managing editor.
  Campbell was also editor of Free Time, a publication to which he gave its title.
  Born in Philadelphia, Campbell has spent most of his life in this county going from kindergarten through high school in Middle Township schools. He graduated in the Class of 1967.
"He set a really high standard for reporters and editors in Cape May  County," said Campbell of Zelnik.
  He said Zelnik followed old-style journalism believing in the  fundamentals of reporting.
  "Those basics never change," said Campbell.
  He described Zelnik as a terrific mentor.
  Zelnik became editor of the Herald in 1982. 
  "He brought to the paper such professionalism and dedication and fearlessness and a willingness to follow a story wherever it took him," said Hall. "Cape May County wasn't accustomed to that.
  He said Zelnik brought the credibility and training from working for daily, more metropolitan newspapers.
  "The community recognized that right away," said Hall.
  He noted the public began lining up outside the Herald building on Wednesday to pick up a copy of the paper. Hall said advertising increased after Zelnik arrived.
  "He is a dedicated, driven newsman who loves his profession," said Hall. "He thrives as a newsman, he was born to be a newsman."
  "When he gets on an issue he thinks is important to people, he stays on that issue," said Hall.
  He said an example was the need for a community college in the county. Cape May County was the only county in the state without a community college.
  He recognized the value of a college and the damage that was being done to the young people by not having the same educational opportunities that youth of the rest of the state had.
  At the college dedication, it was said the college would not be there  without Zelnik.
  When he arrived at the Herald in December 1982, Zelnik recalled finding a staff of only three producing a 20-page newspaper.
  While he has always covered news, particularly municipal and county government, he said his delight is writing his weekly, often humorous column.
  He said he has written columns since about 1958.
  Zelnik came from a different world, a daily newspaper world and more of a competitive market, the Philadelphia area.
  "We became more competitive with an emphasis on hard news," he said of the Herald.
  Zelnik said in a prior job, as an editorial page editor for the Delaware County (Pa.) Daily Times, he became involved for a fight for a community college there. He said the situations were amazingly similar with the county run by Republicans who didn't want a community college.
  Another issue he pursued a number of years ago, county meetings did not observe the open public meetings act as far as releasing minutes of meetings. He said county government is now "very open."
  "We've always been championing the public's right to know," he said.
  Zelnik was with the Delaware County Times from 1966 to 1976, then the Philadelphia Daily News as an editorial writer for about a year and a half. He said he was hired off the picket line from the Delaware County Times while it was on strike.
  From the Daily News, Zelnik went the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin in the Delaware County Bureau in Media, Pa., where he spent five years. The newspaper ceased publication and Zelnik went to work for Buffalo (N.Y.) Courier-Express as an editorial writer, which went out of business six months later.
  Zelnik said he saw two papers fold within seven months. He said coworkers at the Herald ribbed him asking if the Herald would fold.
  Zelnik said he was familiar with Cape May County as an occasional visitor. Along with editing the Herald, he covered county government, something he did at previous newspapers.
  The Herald's newsroom displays numerous awards won by Zelnik. There were many others at other papers were he worked.
  Zelnik graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree from University of Buffalo in 1954 and a Masters Degree in 1959. His first journalism job was with his hometown paper in Gowanda, N.Y.
  "There were two weeklies, I was working for one, then I got drafted into the Army and came back and worked for the other one," said Zelnik.
  He received a Neiman Foundation Journalism Fellowship to Harvard University for one year in 1969.
  Zelnik has not ruled out writing a book, perhaps, a collection of his columns.
  "I'm delighted at Al's promotion," he said. "I know he'll do a great job."
  Zelnik said he believes the Herald is "respected and can be trusted."
  He said the Herald has a "really great staff."