North Carolina’s nonprofit Asheville Watchdog makes hire, board appointment

The following excerpt was sent out from avlwatchdog.org:

Keith Campbell, a veteran journalist and former vice president and managing editor of The Dallas Morning News, has been named Asheville Watchdog’s next managing editor.

The Watchdog also elected Ty Russell, WLOS News 13’s evening anchor and a member of the News 13 Investigates reporting team, to the board of directors of the nonprofit news organization.

Campbell will take over The Watchdog’s day-to-day newsroom operations beginning June 1. He succeeds Peter Lewis, who served for two years as the Watchdog’s volunteer managing editor and was named Executive Editor by the board on Monday.

Lewis, formerly a senior writer and editor of The New York Times, will continue to volunteer along with Watchdog reporters Sally Kestin, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter; Tom Fiedler, dean emeritus at Boston University’s College of Communication and former executive editor of The Miami Herald; Barbara Durr, former correspondent for The Financial Times of London; photographer Starr Sariego; and John Maines, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner at The South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Campbell becomes the third salaried employee of The Watchdog, which continues to build a permanent staff for long-term sustainability. The Watchdog hired veteran reporter John Boyle in November and investigative reporter Andrew R. Jones in February.

A native of Louisville, Campbell has a journalism degree from the University of Missouri. Before joining The Dallas Morning News, he worked at The Montgomery Advertiser, The Wichita Eagle, and The Tampa Bay Times. He also was interim senior editor of The Modesto Bee.

Russell, a native of Miami, joined WLOS News 13 in Asheville in 2021. He worked previously as a reporter and anchor at Miami’s CBS-owned station, WFOR. He started his career at KNOE in Monroe, La., before working at WBBH in Fort Myers, Fla. and later at WFTV in Orlando.

As a member of the Asheville Watchdog board of directors, Russell will help guide the digital-first organization as it grows and expands into new forms of local storytelling, including audio and video.