After serving five years as a contributing writer, Harry Colbert, Jr. has been named the new managing editor for Insight News.
As managing editor Colbert will work under Insight founder and editor-in-chief, Al McFarlane, and publisher, Batala McFarlane. In his role Colbert will be charged with assisting in the paper’s editorial decisions and directing Insight’s digital initiative. In addition, Colbert will continue to provide content for the paper and serve as copy editor.
“I’m beyond humbled to be named Insight’s managing editor,” said Colbert. “Insight is an esteemed legacy institution and it’s a tremendous honor that Al McFarlane and Batala McFarlane have bestowed upon me. I truly feel this is where I’m supposed to be. This is where I can best be of service to my community and to all of Minnesota.”
In addition to writing for Insight, Colbert was a special guest writer with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and served as a guest host on “Conversations with Al McFarlane,” a weekly radio program on KFAI-FM. Prior to joining Insight, Colbert served as editor and reporter for the North County and County Star Journals in St. Louis and reporter with Metro Networks, a news and weather wire service in St. Louis. He has also written for the St. Louis American and St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Colbert is a past president of the University of Missouri – Columbia chapter of the NAACP and a former executive board member of the Greater St. Louis Assoc. of Black Journalists and the Urban League Young Professionals of Metropolitan St. Louis. Colbert is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.
Insight News, originally Insight Magazine, has served as a trusted voice of the Twin Cities African-American community since 1974. Al McFarlane re-launched Insight as a newspaper a year later in 1975. Insight is a member of the National Newspaper Publishers Assoc. (NNPA), a trade association of the more than 200 African-American-owned community newspapers from throughout the United States. McFarlane is the chairman of the board for the NNPA Foundation.
