NATCHEZ — Justin Whitmore has been promoted to the position of community editor at The Natchez Democrat.

Whitmore has worked at The Democrat since early 2011 as a sports reporter.

He will continue, in his new role, to cover local and regional sports and lead the Adventures section, but will expand his work into news and feature stories as well.

Whitmore is also a feature reporter for Natchez the Magazine.

He came to Natchez from Birmingham, Ala., where he did some freelance work for The Birmingham News.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Alabama in 2008. Whitmore then earned his master’s degree in community journalism at Alabama in 2009.

“Justin has become a key member of our newsroom team and has an interest in branching out beyond the sports world,” Managing Editor Julie Cooper said. “He’ll be leading a variety of projects for us in the sports, news and style sections, and will be a key face for us in the local community, not just on the fields and in the gyms.”