BATON ROUGE - WBRZ has named Jonathan Shelley its Director of News.

Shelley was appointed to oversee the station's news operations from a similar job in the Midwest. Shelley is returning to Louisiana, where his sons were born and where he and his wife have family.

In Louisiana, Shelley was previously the news director at WDSU TV, a television station in New Orleans. There, he oversaw the station's redevelopment after Hurricane Katrina. Shelley managed the south Louisiana newsroom for nearly 10 years before moving to a family-owned television station in Indiana.

WBRZ is owned by the Manship family of Baton Rouge.

Shelley studied journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, has taught journalism and was a TV news producer earlier in his career. His executive management positions include news director roles at two TV stations and as an assistant news director in Oklahoma City and Las Vegas.

The newsrooms he has led have received several National Edward R. Murrow Awards, two Emmy Awards for overall News Excellence, the Walker Cronkite Award for excellence in political journalism and two Sigma Delta Chi Awards from the Society of Professional Journalists.

Shelley takes the helm of the WBRZ news department from Trey Schmaltz, who was named the station's general manager in August as Rocky Daboval retires from WBRZ after more than four decades with the company.

"WBRZ offers a unique environment… in an industry dominated by large corporations. I welcome the chance to extend the tradition Channel 2 has established," Shelley said.

"Jonathan isn't just a textbook journalist, he's a creative news manager who understands the changing dynamics of the local news landscape. I'm excited to have him as part of our team," Schmaltz said.

Shelley, who starts at the end of October, will oversee the most amount of local news on television in the Baton Rouge viewing area: Eight hours of news Monday-Friday and some four hours of locally produced content on the weekends across two stations: WBRZ, the ABC affiliate, and the independent broadcast and streaming news channel, WBRZ Plus.

WBRZ, WBRZ Plus and Baton Rouge’s WBTR are owned by the Manship family of Louisiana who have a hundred-year history producing broadcast news and print dailies in South Louisiana. The Manship family also owns multiple stations programming from KRGV TV in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley.