Mitch Clarke, a veteran journalist with more than 30 years of experience, has been promoted to director of news and content for Jacobs Media.
In his new role, Clarke will direct the newsroom staff that produces content for WDUN AM/FM and AccessWDUN.com, North Georgia’s most-read website for local news.
“To have someone with Mitch’s experience already in the building made this an easy decision,” Bill Maine, executive vice president and general manager, said. “No one understands news and this community better. He’s well known and well respected in our community, and he brings a depth of knowledge that will help grow our newsroom.”
Previously, Clarke oversaw AccessWDUN, including a redesign and rebranding of the site in 2015. For the past two years, the website has won the Georgia Association of Broadcasters GABBY Award for best website. As director of news and content, he will continue to produce content across Jacobs Media's radio, web and mobile platforms and will participate in WDUN's political coverage. He will also create marketing campaigns for the company and for the unique local content it produces.
“I’m thrilled with this new opportunity,” Clarke said. “I’ve come to love Gainesville and North Georgia, and the opportunity to lead an outstanding news organization is something I could not turn down.”
Before joining Jacobs Media, Clarke was executive editor of The Times in Gainesville for nearly seven years until 2013. Clarke is the winner of several Associated Press and Georgia Press Association writing awards, including the Otis A. Brumby Trophy for serious column in 2010 and the Joe Parham Trophy for humorous column in 2012. He also won a first-place award in deadline writing in 1992 for coverage of a visit to Macon by Bill Clinton during his presidential campaign.
For 12 years, he was a reporter and editor at The Macon Telegraph, specializing in coverage of government and politics at both the local and state levels. He was also chief of the newspaper's Houston-Peach bureau in the mid 1990s.
Before coming to Gainesville, Clarke spent six years at Georgia College & State University as director of university communications. Before going to Georgia College, he was director of public information for the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners.
A native of Blakely in southwest Georgia, Clarke is a 1986 graduate of Valdosta State College, where he received a degree in English/Journalism.
