After more than two decades in newspapers, veteran journalist Jason Morton has joined TTL, Inc.’s growing marketing department as its writing specialist. Jason was hired to help elevate TTL’s written content, from proposals and qualifications to both external and internal communications.
A native of Alabama, Jason graduated from the University of Alabama with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. He began his newspaper career in March 2000 with the LaGrange (Georgia) Daily News, covering local government and public safety for communities in West Georgia and Troup County.
In 2004, Jason was hired by The Tuscaloosa News in Tuscaloosa, Alabama – the headquarters of TTL – as its night and weekend public safety reporter. In the 18 years that followed, Jason was assigned at various times to cover the state and local court system, the activities in communities across nine counties of West Alabama, and finally the county and municipal governments in Tuscaloosa County, focusing primarily on the actions of the city of Tuscaloosa and the Tuscaloosa City Council for the latter half of his newspaper career.
Along the way, Jason won multiple writing and reporting awards from newspaper associations in Georgia and Alabama, including the 2003 Class AA Associated Press Association’s Story of the Year in Georgia and, in 2008, the Alabama Associated Press Managing Editors Association’s Sweepstakes award (its version of story of the year).
Jason was also a member of The Tuscaloosa News reporting staff that won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting for its coverage of the devastating tornado of April 27, 2011, that tore a 5.9-mile path of destruction across Tuscaloosa and damaged or destroyed more than 12% of the city’s homes, facilities, and businesses.
Jason and his wife, Pam, reside in east Tuscaloosa with their son, Enoch. When he is not behind a keyboard, Jason enjoys cooking, watching movies, losing to his son in video games, and cheering on the Alabama Crimson Tide.