Jonesboro, AR – (JonesboroRightNow.com) – October 1, 2024 – Jonesboro Radio Group President/General Manager Trey Stafford announced that Rachel Rudd has been named Editor-in-Chief of the JonesboroRightNow.com online news site today.
Rudd replaces founding Editor-in-Chief Rachel Anderson who left JRN to accept a position in the marketing and communications office at Arkansas State University.
“Rachel Anderson was absolutely the right person to launch our project,” Stafford said. “We feel the same way about the timing of Rachel Rudd. She has a very unique passion for news, a lifelong love for organizing and publishing, and has shown excitement about our online news site project. It’s perfect.”
Rudd graduated summa cum laude from Arkansas State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in creative media production (corporate emphasis) with a minor in multimedia journalism. She was an Honors College student during her time at A-State.
“I worked with Rachel for two consecutive years on The Herald, our on-campus student-run newspaper,” said Sandra Combs, associate professor of multimedia journalism and faculty adviser for The Herald at Arkansas State University. “The second year Rachel was our editor. She is so passionate about news. She will interview anyone regardless of their status or importance. Many times, I watched her do whatever it took to get the story. She is mature well beyond her age. She will do great in her new role at JonesboroRightNow.com.”
Rudd served as Editor-in-Chief, News Editor and Staff Writer for The Herald, Vice President of Public Relations for the A-State Honors College among many other activities on campus. Rudd is a native of Beebe and was active in journalism throughout her public school career, serving on her school’s broadcast news crew and yearbook staff. She jokes that her journalism career started at age eight when her story about a classmate’s dog finding his way home was published in the local newspaper, The Beebe News.
“As a student journalist at Arkansas State, Rachel thoroughly researched stories and sought to present the truth of events in The Herald,” added Dr. Gina Hogue, Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Communication and Interim Director of the School of Media and Journalism at Arkansas State. “Rachel’s professionalism and personal integrity will serve the community well in her new role as editor of Jonesboro Right Now.”
While at The Herald, Rachel won several awards through the Arkansas College Media Association, including First Place In-Depth Newswriting (2024), First Place Online News Writing (2024), First Place Online Feature Writing (2024), First Place Online News Photo (2024), First Place Newspaper Election/Political Coverage (2023), and First Place Newspaper In-Depth News (2023).
She also received awards from the Arkansas chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists Student Division and the Southeast Journalism Conference for her news writing and photojournalism.
“I am so thrilled to be starting this position,” Rudd said. I can’t wait to see how I learn and grow here at JRN and am excited to continue my editing and reporting career.”
“I watched Rachel’s writings and saw how she directed The Herald in the months prior to launch of our news site,” Stafford said. “There is no doubt in my mind that Rachel and her team will carry out our mission of providing Jonesboro and Craighead County a quality hyperlocal news service.