John M. Willis, publisher and editor of the Calhoun Times, has been with News Publishing Co. since 1989, first as a writer for a monthly business magazine, and later as Roman Record editor, senior writer and business editor for the Rome News-Tribune.
He was named publisher of the Calhoun Times in 2003.
Willis is a 1971 graduate of Virginia Military Institute, where he wrote for the VMI Cadet, the student newspaper. He has a bachelor's degree in history.
He began his journalism career in 1974 as sports editor of the Worcester County (Md.) Messenger.
He has won a number of Associated Press and Georgia Press Association awards for business writing and his columns in the Rome News-Tribune and the Calhoun Times, which was honored by the Georgia Press Association for its local news coverage in 2006.
He has two daughters, Molly Willis Lopez and Jennifer Willis McNeil, who live in Rome with their husbands.