Gloria Fletcher has been named president of Sound Publishing, a company that owns and operates 38 community newspapers — including The Beachcomber — and 14 Little Nickel publications in the greater Puget Sound area.

Fletcher comes to Sound from Gatehouse Media, where she was regional vice president responsible for 85 publications spread over 13 states based in Joplin, Mo. Prior to Gatehouse, she was division vice president for Community Newspaper Holdings from 2000 to 2007, responsible for their Oklahoma group. She also worked for American Publishing Company from 1988 to 1999, after beginning her career working for a small daily in Woodward, Okla., in 1985.

She is an honors graduate of the University of Oklahoma and serves on the board of directors of the Local Media Association. Fletcher is married with two sons, ages 14 and 17, and she and her family are excited about the move to Seattle and the Pacific Northwest.

“I’m honored to join Sound Publishing and Black Press,” Fletcher said. “I’m anxious to be on-site to learn about the area, the plethora of print and digital news products and really get to know the many talented people who produce them. My family and I are very excited to get there.”

Fletcher’s appointment was announced March 26 by Rick O’Connor, chief operating officer of Black Press of Victoria, B.C., Sound Publishing’s parent company, and company owner David Black.

“David and I are excited about the quality of leadership that Gloria brings to her new position and we hope to build on the new acquisitions we announced in the fall of last year,” O’Connor said.

O’Connor thanked both Josh O’Connor and Lori Maxim, vice presidents of Sound Publishing, for their leadership and guidance of Sound over the past two years. He also thanked executives Mark Warner and Don Kendall for their work in bringing both the Port Angeles and Sequim newspapers into the Sound group over the past few months.

“Gloria is inheriting a group of publishing titles and websites that I think is poised for strong growth, given the quality of assets, the health of the marketplace and talented employees,” O’Connor said.

Sound Publishing, based in Poulsbo and Bellevue, added the Peninsula Daily News (Port Angeles), Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum to its community newspaper holdings in fall 2010. Collectively, Sound Publishing has a circulation of 773,126.

Sound Publishing’s broad household distribution blankets the greater Puget Sound region, extending northward from Seattle to Canada, south to Salem, Ore., and westward to the Pacific Ocean.