My name is Kate Verity, and I am thrilled to be the newest News Editor to serve The Covington News.

I’m originally from West Georgia, where I graduated from Bremen High School in 2021. Though Covington is new turf for me, I’ve heard that this city is vibrant and bustling, and I can’t wait to dive into the community.

I’m a recent college graduate, earning my diploma  last December from Georgia College & State University (GCSU) in Milledgeville. Like my predecessor, Managing Editor Evan Newton, my degree is in mass communication, and I specialized in multimedia journalism with a tacked-on minor in political science.

I always knew that I enjoyed sharing information. Whether that be through telling my mom all the Egyptian mummification facts I learned in class in third grade (many of which I’m sure she could have lived never knowing) or by being the first person to tell my family about the breaking news notification I just received, I seek out the rush of sharing the story and being the first to compile all the details that connect the dots.

I honed my reporting skills with GCSU’s student-run newspaper, The Colonnade, where I rose from staff writer to news editor to editor-in-chief. 

In 2022, I began my journalism career swinging for the fences when the first piece I volunteered to write was an investigation into the rumors of secret Civil War-era escape tunnels running from Milledgeville’s Old Governor’s Mansion to a nearby creek (which turned out to be just coal shoots and sewer tunnels sparking rumors—much less exciting, I know). But from that first story, 18-year-old Kate realized she’d found her passion: discovering truths, answering questions and spreading information.

Throughout the next two years, I continued to aim to do one thing: Answer questions. 

I can tell you now why GCSU doesn’t have a football program, the history of the university’s mascots and name changes, how student bands compete to open the homecoming concert and more. Hopefully, because of my work and the dedicated team of storytellers in that GCSU newsroom every night, the student body can answer those questions now, too.

Last summer, I completed an internship in Atlanta with The Georgia Recorder, and as I’m sure you can imagine, the summer of 2024 was an insane time to be an intern reporter with an organization that focuses on statewide issues and policy in a swing state.

During my internship, one presidential candidate was shot, the other dropped out of the race and was replaced, the first presidential debate took place in Atlanta and then both Trump and Harris held campaign rallies within days of one another on Georgia State University’s metro campus. I covered a partisan watch party during the debate, and I attended and wrote about both rallies. But I’ll admit that I was at a Rome Braves game and off the clock when Trump was shot. 

Now that I have graduated and opened a door into Covington, I hope I can continue to be a medium for information and answer local questions.

I’m excited to embark into a new city, discovering everything that Covington and Newton County have to offer. I am certain that with the already outstanding team here at The News standing beside me, I can be a channel that keeps this community informed.

Kate Verity is the news editor of The Covington News. She can be reached at kverity@covnews.com.