Jason Cato spent the past 17 years working in Pennsylvania, but he’s a South Carolinian at heart.
Cato, 49, became managing editor of The Post and Courier (Charleston, South Carolina) on May 31.
He grew up in Beaufort, where his father was editor and later publisher of the Beaufort Gazette, but he has lived in a “laundry list” of Palmetto State towns — including Charleston, Columbia, Rock Hill, Conway, Chester, Greenville, Greenwood, Lancaster and Surfside Beach.
He graduated from the College of Charleston with a degree in media communications.
Cato brings a desire to mentor others and an eagerness to learn to one of the newsroom’s top positions.
The managing editor’s position has been vacant since Autumn Phillips was promoted to executive editor in August.
“We conducted a national search for a managing editor,” Phillips said. “It took 10 months to find the right person, but we ended up with exactly the right person for this time and this newsroom.”
Cato remembers how much his father cared for the Beaufort community, and he strives to leave the same impact.
“It’s not just covering communities, but being a part of communities,” Cato said.
Aside from his intentional engagement with the community, Cato is a great mentor, according to one of his former reporters.
“I would classify him as among the editors who have had the greatest impact on my career,” said Renatta Signorini, who worked with Cato when he was deputy managing editor of the Tribune-Review in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. “He was always very conscientious when he was editing stories. He wanted to make them better.”
As managing editor, Cato will run the day-to-day operations of the newsroom and implement The Post and Courier’s broader vision.
“Jason is what I call a reporter’s editor,” Phillips said. “By that, I mean he loves the craft — the reporting, the writing and the thought that needs to go into a story from assignment to publication. That’s the culture of our newsroom and he will fit right in.”
Cato worked at The Herald in Rock Hill before making the move to Pennsylvania, where he spent 11 years as a reporter and editor at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review before moving in 2016 to the company’s newsroom in Greensburg.
He always wanted to end up at The Post and Courier, he said.
His understanding of South Carolina is what set him apart from the competition, Phillips said. He will move back to the state with his wife, Sara, and four-year old daughter, Lila.
“That’s important for us as we continue to grow into a statewide newspaper to have someone deeply involved in our news decisions who has that depth of knowledge,” Phillips said.
Cato said he is excited to grow the paper’s audience and maintain its reputation for excellent reporting.
“It’s pretty astounding, all the things that this company is not just aiming to do, but is doing,” he said.
