By Associated Press - Thursday, January 16, 2020

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Mary Irby-Jones has been named the top editor of two Mississippi newspapers, The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson and the Hattiesburg American.

Irby-Jones will begin her new role immediately, Katrice Hardy, USA TODAY’s Regional Editor for the South, announced Thursday. She will replace Sam Hall, who had served as The Clarion-Ledger’s executive editor since 2015.

“Being chosen to lead the state’s top newspaper is an honor that I never dreamed possible for a girl who grew up in a small rural Mississippi town,” said Irby-Jones. She becomes the first African American woman to serve in the role.

Irby-Jones most recently worked as the Digital Director for The Clarion-Ledger where she oversaw a regional digital operation for the eight newsrooms in the Deep South, the newspaper reported. She returned to Gannett in May after 12 years of working in a converged newsroom for Cox Media Ohio in Dayton, Ohio, where she oversaw a 24/7 digital team for three Ohio newspapers and WHIO-TV and Radio. Other roles she performed at Cox include Senior Editor of the Dayton Daily News and Managing Editor for WHIO-TV.

Irby-Jones first joined Gannett as a copy editor in Hattiesburg, Missississippi, and worked at The Clarion-Ledger, the Montgomery Advertiser in Montgomery, Alabama and the Statesman Journal in Salem, Oregon. During her 31-year career, Irby-Jones has led strong local news and investigative coverage for daily newspapers as well as award-winning business and state government teams, Hardy said.

“In conversations with Mary, it’s clear that under her leadership our Mississippi newsrooms will provide the many communities we serve there with authentic, bold and transformative storytelling and journalism that leads to outrage, enlightenment and change,” Hardy said.

“Even more exciting is the fact that Mary is from Mississippi, has worked for the paper earlier in her career and in recent months, already has a track record of being a key leader in the newsrooms there.”

“I am well aware that I am inheriting a special journalism legacy,” Irby-Jones said. “I look forward to leading The Clarion-Ledger and the Hattiesburg American newsrooms and to continuing that legacy by building strong local reports that will make our communities a better place to live, work and raise a family.”

Irby-Jones is a 1984 graduate of Bay Springs High School and a 1988 graduate of the University of Mississippi, as well as a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority.

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