Forty Under 40: Hector Cueva

Hector Cueva started his newspaper career as a delivery boy in his hometown of Oxnard, Calif.

Now, he is circulation director for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazettes Northwest Arkansas operation, which has a circulation of 61,710 on Sundays and 39,336 on weekdays throughout a 12-county area. He also oversees the circulation of eight weekly newspapers owned by Wehco Media Group.

A summer job as a telemarketer at the Oxnard Press Courier led a 19-year-old Cueva to a position as district sales manager overseeing 60 carriers.

Cueva then had three jobs as circulation manager at papers owned by Thomson Newspaper Group in Barstow, Calif., Kerrville, Texas, and Enid, Okla.

In 1995, Thomson sold its newspapers to American Publishing Co., and Cueva became vice president of circulation for the companys 70 newspapers.

In 1999, he moved to Fayetteville to be circulation director at the Northwest Arkansas Times while still serving as APCs vice president. Three months later, American Publishing sold to Community Publishers Inc. of Bentonville, and three months after that, the alliance with the D-G was announced.

After six months as circulation sales manager for the alliance papers, Cueva was promoted to his current position.