SPOONER – Rich Jackson, who in May earned national attention as “The Homeless Editor,” has been named editor and general manager of the Spooner Advocate and the (Hayward) Sawyer County Record, the newspapers announced this week.
A Wisconsin native and longtime newspaper veteran, Jackson grew up in Chippewa Falls and earned his journalism degree from UW-Eau Claire. While in college, he worked for The Spectator student newspaper and interned for the Leader-Telegram.
Jackson started his professional career in the 1990s with stints at the (Beaver Dam) Daily Citizen, (Wisconsin Rapids) Daily Tribune, and the Wausau Daily Herald. He left Wisconsin in 2000 to join the Lansing (Mich.) State Journal as city editor and went on to serve in editor roles at several newspapers in Indiana, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
In May, Jackson was profiled by The New York Times after he started his blog, The Homeless Editor. Jackson had been laid off on April 24 after nearly a year as executive editor of the Bloomington (Ind.) Herald-Times. Forced to move out of company-provided housing, Jackson found himself living in a Motel 6 during the early days of the pandemic.
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Jackson succeeds Paul Mitchell, who held the same roles with the Advocate and Record before retiring late last year.
