Brian Kelly has been named editor of the Bainbridge Island Review newspaper.
A veteran print and online journalist, Kelly, 47, has been the editor of the twice-weekly South Whidbey Record for the past six years.
Prior to his time on Whidbey Island, he was a reporter at the Herald in Everett and The Seattle Times, and was the editor of the Snoqualmie Valley Record for seven years.
He got his start in the news business as an Army photographer, where he worked for a newspaper in Germany for three years.
“Brian is an award-winning journalist with a reputation for solid investigative reporting,” Review Publisher Donna Etchey said. “We cannot be more pleased to have Brian as part of our team here in Kitsap.”
During the last four years of his tenure at South Whidbey, the Record won more than 75 state and national journalism awards, including General Excellence honors from the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association in 2011.
The publication also earned recognition as a “Newspaper of the Year” for being one of the top newspapers for its size in the United States and Canada in 2008, an honor bestowed by the Suburban Newspapers of America organization.
A 1992 graduate of the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism, Kelly is an insufferable Ducks fan, especially during football season. He is married, and met his wife Leslie, a longtime journalist who has worked at dailies in Kansas and Washington, while they both worked at the Herald in Everett. The couple do not have children.
Kelly will start at the Review on March 5. He succeeds Dennis Anstine, who has left the Review to pursue other interests.