Caleb Slinkard

1 month ago | maconmelody.com | Caleb Slinkard

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... This is a difficult column for me to write, because I’m saying goodbye. Today is my final day as managing editor of The Macon Melody. I’ll take a week off and then, the day after Memorial Day, begin my new job with The New York Times. I can’t share the specifics of the job yet, but it’s a remarkable opportunity to work for an organization I’ve admired since I was a teenager.

2 months ago | maconmelody.com | Caleb Slinkard

Saturday I completed two-thirds of the Macon Events Triathlon, buying a crateful of books from the Friends of the Library Book Sale and cheering on folks at the Magnolia Soap Box Derby (I missed Fresh Record’s record store day celebration, my bad y’all. Next year!). The soap box derby is a quintessential community event — it’s free, it gets folks outside, it utilizes public spaces, it celebrates schools, businesses and nonprofit organizations. And we had beautiful weather this year.

2 months ago | maconmelody.com | Caleb Slinkard

This past weekend, I got my hands dirty. Literally. My back deck was covered with clumps of spilled dirt, perlite and clay planters cleared of last year’s soil and dead roots and plants in square, plastic containers awaiting their new homes. My girlfriend and I found space for a family of succulents that survived the winter, then planted various lantanas, yarrow and rose bushes in clay pots on my back porch.

2 months ago | maconmelody.com | Caleb Slinkard

I’m writing this column from a coffee shop in Columbia, South Carolina. I’m on my way back to Macon from the Local News Researchers Workshop at the University of North Carolina’s Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media; that’s a fancy way of saying a bunch of academics, researchers and journalists got together to share notes and ideas about how to keep local journalism going.

Mar 20, 2025 | maconmelody.com | Caleb Slinkard

Caleb Slinkard is the Executive Editor of the Georgia Trust for Local News and Managing Editor of the Macon Melody. He began his career in Texas as a reporter for his hometown newspaper, the Greenville Herald Banner, and two years later became the paper’s senior editor. Slinkard has run newspapers in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Georgia and taught journalism and practicum courses at the University of Oklahoma’s Gaylord College of Journalism and Mercer University.