The Daily Southerner in Tarboro, N.C., has named veteran journalist John H. Walker as its new editor and publisher. Walker is a Mississippi native who served as publisher of The Thomasville Times in North Carolina from 2001-2005. He also has worked at newspapers in Mississippi, Arkansas, Nebraska and Louisiana in addition to owning and operating a communications consulting firm and an online news site.

Walker was editor and publisher of the Daily News of Bogalusa, La., when it was named Newspaper of the Year in 2009 by the Louisiana Press Association and National Newspaper of the year by the American Correctional Association. The Louisiana Press Association also named Walker its Investigative Reporter of the Year in 2008.