John Gereau (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

SARANAC LAKE — The Adirondack Daily Enterprise and Lake Placid News have a new publisher. John Gereau has worked in North Country newspapers since the 1990s and is now returning to the business after a brief stint away.

Gereau replaces longtime Enterprise and Lake Placid News editor and publisher Andy Flynn. The publications’ new leader has a long history in local community journalism.

“I am incredibly excited to assume the position of publisher at the Adirondack Daily Enterprise and Lake Placid News,” Gereau said. “It is a superior organization with a storied history of covering news of interest to residents of the Tri-Lakes Region. I am lucky to inherit a great team that I know will help me continue in carrying on that tradition.”

Gereau believes in community journalism. He said local papers report on the issues that matter to locals, both in print and also on its website.

“Print media is more important than ever, given the current climate of distrust and bias among other news providers,” Gereau said. “When it comes to credibility, maintaining trust and delivering both sides of the story, there is no better place to turn than community journalism. I think people appreciate that more today than ever before.”

Ogden Newspapers Regional Publisher Mike Bird said Gereau is the perfect fit to lead the Enterprise and Lake Placid News.

“John has all the tools to lead the newspaper and grow it in every way for our valued subscribers and advertising partners,” Bird said. “It is fantastic to have an Adirondack region native at the helm of our valued publications and digital news sites. We look forward to seeing his impact immediately.”

Gereau said he has plans to help the Enterprise grow. He has experience in finding creative ways to partner with local business and community leaders to help deliver the news of importance to residents of the region. The national news is likely to elicit anger, he said, while local newspapers evoke a different set of emotions.

These are the stories that impact people’s lives the most, he said, and they’re the stories people clip out and keep forever.

Gereau even wrote a series called “Our Neighbors” where he talked to people and chronicled their life stories. He loved it — realizing the general public walked by these same individuals every day, never knowing their humbling backstories.

When he was at the Post Star, he said, reporters were asked to throw a dart at a map of their coverage area. Once, his dart landed in the middle of farm country in Hartford, Washington County. He took a dirt road to a trailer where he knocked on the door and met a World War II veteran. They talked over coffee all afternoon, he got photos of the veteran holding his medals and ended up winning an award for that article.

Gereau has military service in his background as well.

He was an infantryman with the Army National Guard stationed in Colorado. He had minored in photography and spent his free time listening to a scanner for car wrecks and other emergency news, selling the photos he got at the scenes to a small-town paper there. Eventually, the editor asked him to start covering the stories as he was already on scene.

This was back in the age of film cameras. Gereau is still a photography fanatic, carrying around his digital Canon 7D.

He grew up in Warren County. After his stint in Colorado, he couldn’t wait to move back to the Adirondacks. When he got back, he answered an ad for a staff writer position at the Times of Ti and worked his way up the leadership there.

He worked as the managing editor for six years at Denton Publications, now The Sun Community News; eight years as a staff writer for The Post Star; and then back at Denton as the executive editor until 2017.

Most recently, he worked as the operations and marketing director for Mountain Lake Services, a service provider for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Essex County.

Gereau is an avid outdoorsman and a backcountry guide on water and on land.

He started with the Enterprise on July 8. He currently lives in Westport with his fiancee, Tamara. Gereau said he’s now looking for a home in Saranac Lake and becoming engrossed in the community here.

“I don’t think there is a more beautiful part of the Adirondack Park,” he said.