New ME, two new journalists at Pacific Coast Business Times

Pacific Coast Business Times editor and publisher Henry Dubroff writes that the weekly business newspaper has hired a new managing editor as well as two new journalists for the staff.

Ray Estrada is the new managing editor, while Stephen Nellis is the new technology editor and Emily Rancer is a new reporter. Estrada takes over from Rose Flores Medlock, who is moving to Orange County where she will be editor at Orange Coast Magazine. Nellis replaces Bill Lascher, who has moved on to the position of deputy editor at the Ventura County Reporter. Rancer takes over from Stevi Costa, who will be moving to the Bay Area after her graduation from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Dubroff wrote, “If Estrada’s name sounds somewhat familiar it’s because Ray was a business writer and assistant city editor for the Santa Barbara News-Press from 1988 to 1992. He’s still remembered in the South Coast as a top-notch reporter and a classy writer.

“Estrada will spend most of his time editing stories, designing our news pages and providing direction to the staff, but we’ll tap his writing talents as well.

“He comes to us from Vida en el Valle, the Fresno Bee’s bilingual weekly newspaper, where he served as associate editor. Prior to that, he was news and business editor at The Sentinel in Hanford.”

Nellis is a recent graduate of the University of Missouri, while Rancer is editor in chief of the student newspaper at California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo.