COVINGTON, Ga. — David Clemons has been named as the editor and publisher of The Covington News.

Patrick Graham, the new owner of The News, announced Clemons’ appointment effective Friday.

Clemons, 36, comes to Newton County after two years as the managing editor of The Walton Tribune in Monroe, which Graham also owns.

Clemons served as the publisher of The Tribune from 2009-11 and the Times-Journal in Fort Payne, Alabama, from 2011-15.

“I’m excited to get to work with the staff of The Covington News to give this community a great newspaper,” Clemons said. “We’re proud to be the paper with a local presence in Newton County, and our readers and advertisers are going to be impressed with what they see in the coming months and years.”

During Clemons’ first tenure in Walton County, The Tribune began a three-year streak of winning first place in the prestigious General Excellence category of the Georgia Press Association Better Newspaper Contest. The paper returned to the top in 2017. Clemons also won a Chairman’s Award from the publisher of The New York Times for his work as a staff writer at The Gadsden Times in Alabama in 2004.

Clemons is a 2003 graduate of the University of Montevallo with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in management.

He is a board member of Communities In Schools of Walton County and a past board member of the United Way of Walton County, the chambers of commerce in Walton County and Fort Payne, and of the University of Montevallo National Alumni Association Junior Board of Directors.

He and his wife, Carla, are members of First United Methodist Church in Monroe, where they teach a Sunday school class.