Brian Beckley, the Renton Reporter’s assistant editor, has been named the paper’s new editor, effective July 1.
He takes over for Dean A. Radford, who will become the full-time editor of the Tukwila Reporter.
Beckley, 37, has extensive experience in community journalism, including as interim editor of the Bonney Lake and Enumclaw Courier-Heralds, the Renton Reporter’s sister newspapers.
Beckley started work in Renton in February, covering Renton city government and The Boeing Co. He has also done extensive development of the Renton Reporter Facebook page and its website.
“I am very excited about the opportunity to be the editor of the Renton Reporter,” he said. “I live in Renton and to be the editor of my local paper is a dream come true for a journalist.”
“I have truly appreciated the opportunity to work with Dean Radford, who is a wealth of knowledge about both journalism and the City of Renton,” he added. “I hope to carry on the tradition of quality journalism he brought to this paper and this city while bringing a fresh set of eyes – and starting some new traditions of our own.”
“Brian’s reporting is sharp and engaging and has a young vibe to it,” said Renton Reporter publisher Ellen Morrison, adding, “Brian has had a great mentor, in Dean, over the last six months.”
Beckley is originally from upstate New York and graduated from the University of Albany with a degree in American History and a minor in journalism. He got his start in newspapers at the Community News, a weekly newspaper covering Clifton Park and Halfmoon, the two fastest-growing towns in New York’s Saratoga County.
In 2002, he moved to the Seattle area, where he covered Bonney Lake for the Puyallup Herald. Not long after that, he was hired at the Bonney Lake Courier-Herald, which was purchased by Sound Publishing in 2007.
For nearly two years, Beckley was a reporter for the Kent Reporter. He returned to the Bonney Lake Courier-Herald, which won a third-place General Excellence Award in 2012 from the Washington Newspapers Publishers Association.
Beckley has won numerous awards from the WNPA in news reporting, features writing, photography and for his columns.
Beckley lives with his wife Emily in the North Renton neighborhood.
