You just can’t keep a good man down.

Veteran and venerable journalist Paul Kaplan, fresh off running his first-ever political campaign, returns to The Beacon on November 29.

It’s not a moment too soon for The Beacon, says Publisher John Fredericks.

Kaplan took a leave of absence from The Beacon in July to become chief strategist for the Lori Henry for Roswell Mayor campaign. Henry missed making the Dec. 1 mayoral run-off by a little over 300 votes. 

Kaplan will be taking command of The Beacon’s North Fulton story of the week and will also help lead the company’s effort to shift more news on-line. John Fredericks will take over state news, and will be assigned to the Ga. General Assembly during session.

A former senior editor at The Beacon, Kaplan held high-profile editor posts with some of the nation’s largest daily newspapers, including the Washington Star, The Miami News and The Atlanta-Journal Constitution.

Kaplan holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Florida and a law degree from the University of Miami.

“Hyper-local news is the future of journalism, both in print and online,” Kaplan said.  “And there is no better place for it than North Fulton, where the readers are politically savvy and hard to please, which is how I like it. It’s great to be back.”

Beacon principal and CFO Anne Fredericks lauded Kaplan’s return to the company. “Paul has always represented the soul of our approach to content and news coverage at The Beacon,” said Ms. Fredericks. “We are very excited to have him back and leading our local news effort in North Fulton. No one knows North Fulton better than Paul.”

Ms. Fredericks said the company’s editorial goal is to expand both the depth of its news coverage in North Fulton and the state. “We have an opportunity to grow the breadth of our news coverage to include more state news that directly affects our readership in North Fulton. Having Paul back allows us to focus more resources there,” she added. “With the potential of Milton County coming up for a vote in the 2010 General Assembly, this is more critical than ever.” She added that the company would be emphasizing more hard news coverage in 2010, along with more consistent community features and human-interest stories.

“Our editorial objectives in 2010, our fourth year, are simple and straightforward,” Ms. Fredericks said. “We want to bring our audience the best in-depth and lively news coverage of North Fulton County available, and deliver it in multiple media platforms. This provides maximum choice for our growing base of readers, viewers and listeners.”