Georgia paper expands its editorial team

The Telegraph has appointed two editors — Blake Kaplan and Caleb Slinkard — to lead the publication’s daily operations.

Kaplan has been named the organization’s regional executive editor, and Slinkard will be taking on the post of senior editor. “Caleb and I look forward to helping break a lot of news in the Macon area,” Kaplan said.

Kaplan has worked for the Sun Herald newspaper on the Mississippi Gulf Coast for the last 25 years. Currently, he is the paper’s executive editor and general manager. He has also won numerous reporting awards including the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for coverage of Hurricane Katrina.

In his new role, Kaplan will be the executive editor of The Telegraph, the Sun Herald, and the Ledger-Enquirer in Columbus, Georgia.

Kaplan is a graduate of Louisiana State University.

Whereas, Slinkard will move to Macon full-time and take on his post starting March 2.

Recently, he was managing editor of the El Dorado News-Times in Arkansas and executive editor of the Norman Transcript. He also taught as a journalism instructor at the University of Oklahoma. Additionally, he has also won numerous reporting awards from the Oklahoma and Texas press associations.

In his new role, Slinkard will edit the stories produced by Telegraph reporters and select which stories lead the macon.com website or appear on the paper’s front page.

“I can’t wait to move to Macon and get to work,” Slinkard said. “I’m excited about this opportunity to tell meaningful stories, to hold people in power accountable and to celebrate the positive things happening in the community.”

Slinkard is a Texas A&M University-Commerce graduate.