Jordan Barela

Jordan Barela is the digital executive producer for Atlanta News First.

He joined in 2023 from WALB News 10, WANF’s sister station in Albany, and the station he grew up watching as a kid.

While at WALB, he was digital content manager, and later content manager. During his time there, which started in 2018, he oversaw digital coverage of Hurricane Michael, the COVID-19 pandemic, trials related to the 2005 death and disappearance of Irwin County teacher and beauty queen Tara Grinstead, and the 2020 elections in Georgia. As a member of the news management team, he also helped oversee the day-to-day operations of the newsroom for both broadcast and online platforms.

Prior to WALB, he was a reporter and photographer with the Thomasville Times-Enterprise, the newspaper in Thomasville. He also managed the newspaper’s online and social media presence. Starting in 2016, just a month after graduating from Valdosta State University, he covered Grady County government, education in the Thomasville City School system, and other general assignment reporting. Among his coverage includes how an underprivileged and underperforming Black elementary school made strides to improve through new leadership and new initiatives, like school uniforms, and a 2017 deadly shooting involving the drug squad in Thomas County that resulted in the death of a suspect and the community protests in response to that shooting, including protests with the Black Panthers and Black Lives Matter groups.

While at VSU, he was editor-in-chief of The Spectator, the independent student newspaper. Starting as a reporter, he was assistant multimedia editor, then multimedia editor, and digital editor before being selected as editor-in-chief, a title he retained for a year before graduating. His work there includes an investigation into the sudden layoffs of over two dozen faculty and staff and the 2016 visit of President Donald Trump, who was a Republican presidential candidate at the time, to campus, and the corresponding student protest. He was interviewed live on air by Greta Van Susteren, who was with Fox News at the time, about a separate student protest and the aftermath of a viral moment that gained national attention of a man stepping on an American flag.

Currently, he is pursuing a masters degree in emerging media at the University of Georgia.

Born in Socorro, New Mexico, Jordan is a native of Tifton. A 40-minute drive from Albany, WALB News 10 was the station he watched growing up. Longtime Chief Meteorologist Yolanda Amadeo visited his fifth grade class at Matt Wilson Elementary School. A graduate of Tift County High School, he was a part of the school newspaper.

When not working, he loves to find a good thrift store and coffee shop, embroider, play video games, and hang out with his family and dog, Buffy.