Photo by Monroe Roark
Who is The Gabber Newspaper? Let’s meet the team.
Sales
Barry has a BS from Ithaca in mass communication. He has two Emmy awards for his work in television. He also directed Emmy-award winning news shows.
Outside Sales: Lisa Darsie
Sales Assistant: Vicki Morrison
Editorial
Editor-in-Chief: Cameron Healy
Cameron Healy, the paper’s editor in chief, majored in communication and minored in journalism at Eckerd, where she was the news editor for The Current, the campus paper. She started with us as features reporter in November 2022, and we promoted her as she learned more, took it upon herself to seek out additional training, and grew proficient at the job. She has served as our editor-in-chief since February 2025.
News
Chris Collier and Chris Richard
Features
Arts: Maggie Duffy
Business: Ester Venouziou
Ester Venouziou is the founder of LocalShops1 and the creator of St. Petersburg’s Shopapalooza Festival, a “shop small” event that brings together more than 350 local makers and businesses each Thanksgiving weekend at Vinoy Park.
Ester’s story spans continents. Born in Greece, she spent her childhood in Brazil before moving with her family to New Jersey at age 12. That global perspective, along with a love for local news, led her to journalism. She spent nearly two decades as a copy editor at newspapers including the Tampa Bay Times, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, and Jacksonville Times-Union.
Through LocalShops1 and Shopapalooza, Ester supports small businesses while creating ways for the community to connect and celebrate creativity. She believes shopping local isn’t just about money, but about relationships, collaboration, and keeping Tampa Bay’s unique character alive.
When she’s not planning festivals or dreaming up her next project, you’ll likely find her in a Pinellas coffee shop.
Events Editor: Abby Baker
Arts & Features: Maggie Duffy, Madison DeVore, Vic and Pat Carr, and Mason Chambless.
Opinion
Sam Henderson is The Gabber Newspaper’s resident opinion columnist. From 2009-2025 Sam served on Gulfport City Council, first as the Ward IV representative and later as mayor. His views are his alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff, owners, or advertisers. You can reach Sam at any time at sam@thegabber.com. Any emails sent to that address may be used in our Voices column.
April has a BA in Geography from SF State and had her main career (had MANY other jobs) in international shipping. She spent 10 years in England and Australia and moved to Gulfport in 2012 from Seattle. She was on Gulfport City Council from 2020 to 2026, when she moved from Ward 1 to 4 after flooding. She is an active member of GET (Gulfport Environmental Team). She has many opinions and they are all hers.
Team Gabber: Behind the Scenes
Delivery: Connie Dritsos
Creative Director: How Bowers
Publisher: Cathy Salustri Loper
Cathy has a BA in mass communication from the University of Tampa and an MLA in Florida Studies from USF St. Pete. She started her career in radio, working in the Orlando and Tampa markets, then left the field for five years to work in PR. She started freelancing as a journalist again in 2003, and one of her clients was The Gabber Newspaper. By the time she left The Gabber Newspaper in 2015, she was working only for the paper.
She took a year off, published her first book, Backroads of Paradise, then went to work as the arts and entertainment editor for Creative Loafing Tampa. She left there in 2019 because she didn’t want to work for an alt weekly anymore — this paper is my home and my heart — and in 2020, Cathy and Barry bought the paper when the former owners closed it, under the cloud of COVID-19.
Ownership and Funding
The Gabber Newspaper is part of Thursday Morning Media, Inc., a for-profit Florida corporation, owned by Cathy Salustri Loper and and also by Barry Loper (Cathy owns the majority shares). Thursday Morning Media receives the bulk of its funding from The Gabber Newspaper advertisers. Readers make donations and have made loans to secure the paper’s future in the community. Owners in no way allow funding or investors to dictate editorial decisions.
Many — if not all — local weekly papers remaining are owned by people who came up through sales. In our case, that is not so. We are committed to hyperlocal news and to representing our readers needs, wants, and interests.
These small businesses also help power Team Gabber; please patronize them as a thank you!
Bookkeeping: Clear Numbers Bookkeeping
CPA: Canter & MacDaniel
Web cameras: Powered by Ozolio and connected by T-Mobile (not a small business but still has wonderful support)
Team Gabber Believes in the Power of Journalism
We take our responsibility to our community seriously. Thank you for supporting us.
