Former Merc editor and Knight Ridder vice president Jerry Ceppos (pictured) has started his new $175,000-a-year job as University of Nevada, Reno journalism dean. He tells the Reno Gazette-Journal: “I would love to perhaps be able to improve the journalism profession from the inside rather than trying to do it from the outside … It seems to me to be a better chance to influence future journalists by working with students rather than directing and editing the copy of reporters.” (Photo credit: David B. Parker, Reno Gazette-Journal)