Georgia Trust for Local News names Cynthia DuBose executive director

Journalist and media executive Cynthia DuBose has been tapped as the new head of the Georgia Trust for Local News, which, as the Peach State’s largest independent newspaper company, operates 20 publications throughout Middle and South Georgia.

DuBose, a former Atlanta Journal-Constitution newsroom lead and McClatchy Media Co. administrator, will lead the group’s continued digital transformation, according to officials at the nonprofit National Trust for Local News, which owns the Georgia Trust. As executive director, DuBose will be responsible for, among other duties, audience and revenue growth and editorial innovation.

She starts her new role on June 1 at a “pivotal moment” for the Georgia Trust, said Tom Wiley, CEO of the National Trust, in a news release. The group, which runs some of the state’s oldest newspapers as well as the Knight Foundation-backed startup The Macon Melody, has been investing in the future of its properties, the release notes. Those endeavors include equipping newsrooms with digital infrastructure and helping them launch newsletters, podcasts and social video to grow and sustain local audiences.

Wiley said in the release that those efforts are “vital” and that DuBose’s “talents in building new digital products that drive audience growth, her hands-on leadership and mentorship experience, and her focus on executing bold ideas to strengthen local news pair well with our leadership team’s energy, direction and style.”

“We’re thrilled to have Cynthia … drive our next stage of growth,” Wiley said.

DuBose, a native of Long Island, was first attracted to journalism as a student at Spelman College in Atlanta. There, a professor urged her to write for the campus newspaper. She later became its editor.

“I fell in love with the opportunity to be able to tell stories and meet people and learn something different every day,” DuBose said in the National Trust’s press release.

After graduating from Spelman with her bachelor’s degree, DuBose attended Columbia University, where she earned a master’s degree in journalism. She then worked for Long Island’s Newsday before returning to Atlanta in 2006 to work as a reporter at the state’s largest newspaper. Over the next nine years, she served in several audience engagement and digital growth roles, helping to modernize the publication and grow its revenue.

DuBose then spent almost seven years in management roles at McClatchy, which operates 29 newspapers across 14 states. Rising to the role of executive vice president of membership, she built the organization’s audience growth, product development and content monetization teams.

In 2022, DuBose completed the executive program in news leadership and innovation program at the City University of New York’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. She later became the program’s lead coach, a position she will continue to hold as she also works to strengthen the Georgia Trust.

DuBose said she is eager to build deep relationships with the communities the Georgia Trust serves and to bring her experience developing digital products and growing audiences to her new role. She said she will “work tirelessly to ensure” residents have “access to credible, community-centered news and information.”

“Throughout my career, in every position I’ve held, I have always valued bringing coverage to local communities,” DuBose said. “I see tremendous opportunity for the Georgia Trust moving forward.”

DuBose replaces DuBose Porter, who served as executive director from the 2023 founding of the Georgia Trust through this January. The longtime newspaper publisher, attorney and former state representative now focuses on fundraising, partnerships and acquisitions as publisher emeritus. Danyale Starley, who served as interim executive director of the Georgia Trust, will return to her role as the organization’s controller.