Veteran journalist Caleb Slinkard began leading the El Dorado News-Times’ newsroom today as the paper’s managing editor.
“Caleb will be a great addition to the News-Times and I am looking forward to him becoming an integral part of my team,” said Rita Haldeman, News-Times general manager. “Caleb has a clear understanding of community journalism in both print and digital formats, and the importance of covering all aspects of the communities we serve. I have no doubt we will see significant changes to our products under Caleb’s leadership.”
Originally from northeast Texas, Slinkard grew up in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area. He attended Texas A&M University-Commerce, where he studied journalism and political science.
“It’s a great school, a great journalism school,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to do journalism, always wanted to be an editor, reporter since I was a little kid.”
He worked at The East Texan, A&M-Commerce’s school newspaper, and hosted a radio show on the local NPR affiliate station, 88.9 FM KETR. In 2011, as a junior in college, Slinkard began working as a page designer at the Greenville Herald-Banner in Greenville, Texas.
He worked his way up there, moving from page designer to reporter to weekly editor. As 2012 came to a close, Slinkard was elevated to editor-in-chief of the Herald-Banner. He stayed there until 2015, when he moved to The Norman Transcript in Norman, Oklahoma to work as the daily’s executive editor.
Slinkard said he has always been curious, wanting to understand how things work, which is what drew him to journalism as a career.
“Journalism kind of lends itself to a natural curiosity,” he said. “I think that we have an opportunity to give people who don’t have a voice a voice; we have the opportunity to tell really important stories; and, particularly in community journalism, I feel that having a vibrant newspaper is really key to having a vibrant community, so if I can play a role in doing that, that’s also a very rewarding experience, very meaningful.”
Slinkard said he believes journalism can be a powerful force for good in the world.
“On good days, you can change your little corner of the community, and on great days, journalism’s changing the world,” he said. “There’s not a lot of jobs that you can get up in the morning and have the opportunity to do that, so that’s pretty exciting.”
A trail of awards follows Slinkard from his previous newspapers. The Norman Transcript was recognized three years in a row under his leadership with the Oklahoma Press Association’s Sequoyah Award, awarded to the top papers in the state in circulation-based divisions.
“That was a really good reflection on my staff and the work they did,” he said. “Obviously, you don’t do it for the awards, but it’s nice to be recognized. It’s big for the staff.”
The most meaningful career experiences for Slinkard, though, are the stories he gets to tell. In Norman, he covered a Christmas bicycle drive held by University of Oklahoma employees in memory of a woman who had died. It was a typical holiday feature story – bikes donated to children for a good cause.
“And then the woman’s daughter called me from California the next day – it’s a voicemail I still have in my phone – just thanking me for the piece, thanking me for honoring her mother and keeping that legacy alive,” he said. “It was just a really touching moment, and it was a reminder that we have the ability, if we are thoughtful and we do our jobs, to really have a lasting impact on people. Those are the stories, the reasons, why I do this, why it matters to me.”
While Norman is about six times the size of El Dorado, Slinkard said he feels confident his skills will transfer easily.
“In Norman, we covered the City of Norman, we covered the University of Oklahoma, we covered the state capital, we covered the county … several oil companies are headquartered in the region, Norman has a big music and arts scene. So I feel like there are a lot of parallels between the communities even though they are different sizes,” he said. “I think it’s nice to have that background coming here. At least it’s a vocabulary that I’m kind of used to, if you will.”
Now that he’s here at the News-Times, Slinkard is excited to meet the community and get to work.
“Everybody’s been so nice to me. They’ve been so sweet,” he said. “It just seems like a really, really kind, welcoming community. So my goal is just to do everything I can to make sure the News-Times is producing, and continues to produce, the kind of product that this community deserves and that this community is proud of.”
Slinkard said he feels community newspapers can act as “the soul of a city.”
“Everybody pulls from community news; the stories all start here,” he said. “We tell stories nobody else tells; we cover things nobody else is going to cover, and they’re important things, important stories to tell – accomplishments, holding people in power accountable … Our whole system of government is based on this concept that an informed and engaged constituency can elect people to make decisions for themselves and newspapers are a cornerstone of that.”
Over the next few months, Slinkard will focus on meeting members of the community.
“I want to engage the people. I would encourage them to reach out to me – come by the paper, email me, give me a call. I want to chat,” he said.
Slinkard replaces former managing editor Madeleine Leroux.
Caitlan Butler can be reached at 870-862-6611 or [email protected].
Caleb Slinkard can be reached at 870-862-6611 or [email protected].