The Platteville Journal has named Steve Prestegard as its new editor, effective today.

Prestegard, 46, is a 24-year veteran of Wisconsin print and electronic media.

His career began in Southwest Wisconsin when he was hired as a reporter at the Grant County Herald Independent in Lancaster in 1988. Prestegard earned Wisconsin Newspaper Association Better Newspaper Contest first-place awards in the sports news story and sports features story categories.

Prestegard was editor and co-publisher of the Tri-County Press in Cuba City from 1992 to 1994. The Tri-County Press won the WNA’s 1993 Most Improved Newspaper award.

He was the editor of Marketplace Magazine, a regional business magazine based in northeast Wisconsin, for 10 years. He was twice a finalist for the U.S. Small Business Association’s Wisconsin Small Business Journalist of the Year. He also was the director of college relations for Marian University in Fond du Lac.

He is the publisher of The Presteblog (steveprestegard.com). He is a rotating guest on Wisconsin Public Radio’s Joy Cardin morning show, and he was a panelist on “Sunday Insight with Charlie Sykes” on WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee.

Prestegard was a sports and news announcer for The Ripon Channel, the City of Ripon’s government-access cable TV channel, starting in 2003. He was the TV voice for Ripon High School state champion football teams in 2003 and 2005. He also announced Ripon College football and basketball for the Ripon Channel and Midwest Conference TV webcasts. He formerly announced high school sports for WGLR (97.7 FM, 1280 AM) in Lancaster and college basketball for WRPN radio in Ripon.

Prestegard is a native of Madison and a graduate of UW–Madison. His wife, Jannan Roesch, is a native of Potosi and a graduate of Lancaster High School. They have three children, Michael, 12, Dylan, 9, and Shaena, 6.

Prestegard replaces Dan Wackershauser, who is now a communications specialist/editor at UW–Platteville.

You can read more about Prestegard on the Opinion page at www.swnews4u.com.