RAY KING, retail sales manager at The Daily News, has been promoted to publisher of the newspaper. (Terri Castelaz/Daily News photo)

IRON MOUNTAIN — Ray King, retail sales manager at The Daily News, has been named the newspaper’s new publisher.

The longtime Iron Mountain resident succeeds Corky DeRoeck, who retired Friday.

King first joined The Daily News in 1998 as a circulation district manager. After stints at two other businesses, he returned in 2011 as a sales associate in classified advertising.

He took over as retail sales manager in The Daily News’ advertising department after DeRoeck was promoted from advertising manager to publisher/advertising director in early 2016. In 2020, King began overseeing the ADvertiser’s ad sales as well.

King will also assume the roles of advertising director and general manager for Powers Printing, which prints The Daily News along with the Daily Press in Escanaba, The Mining Journal in Marquette and the Daily Mining Gazette in Houghton.

King was already well-versed in sales when he started at The Daily News, he noted.

“A good portion of what I’ve always done has been in a retail setting, in a management position,” he said.

Working under two publishers, DeRoeck and Bob Johnson, gave him the opportunity to learn from different management styles, King said. He’ll likely incorporate some of both in moving forward, he said.

While he does plan to make some changes at The Daily News, they will mostly be “to make the paper more efficient,” he said.

“I’m excited,” King said of the new position. “There’s going to be a learning curve in the beginning until I get some experience under my belt.” He added that a seasoned management staff at The Daily News “will help to make my job as easy as possible.”

Said King, “My door is open. If people want to call and voice an opinion, I’ll listen.”

A native of Calumet in Houghton County, King has lived in the Iron Mountain area since 1980 with his wife, Darlene. They have four grown children, three daughters and a son; 16 grandchildren; and one great-grandchild with another on the way.