Calhoun J. Killeen Jr., a community journalist with more than 25 years experience, has been named editor of Hampton Union.

As editor, he will be responsible for directing the coverage and setting policies for the newspaper.

"Seacoast Newspapers is thrilled to hire a top-notch journalist like Cal to lead Hampton Union," said Howard Altschiller, executive editor of Seacoast Newspapers. "No doubt he’ll do a great job keeping the paper on the news, but he’ll also care deeply about the communities the paper serves and, in many ways, that is just as important."

Killeen, 53, is already familiar with the area. He was editor of The Daily News of Newburyport, Mass., for 21 years.

During that time, the paper grew in circulation and won a number of journalism awards for both general excellence and public service.

He most recently worked on the copy desk at the Boston Globe North edition and as a consultant for the American Press Institute of Reston, Va.

"I believe in community newspapers and I think good ones do everything possible to fairly and accurately reflect the issues, events and people in the towns they cover," said Killeen.

"At the same time, the newspaper should be accessible to its readers," he said. "In the coming weeks, I will be trying to meet both with community leaders and readers to see what they like or dislike about the paper, and what they want to see in it."

"I hope to start new features and columns in the paper, and would welcome suggestions from readers."

Killeen can be reached at ckilleen@seacoastonline.com or 926-5620.