Manny Garcia

Manny Garcia:

The National Press Foundation awards Manny Garcia of the Austin American-Statesman with the Editor of the Year Award.

The National Press Foundation has presented Manny Garcia with the Benjamin C. Bradlee Editor of the Year Award for his bold and inclusive leadership in the Austin American-Statesman’s reporting of the Uvalde School shooting.

The prestigious award is given for creativity, technical aptitude, ethics, and the capacity to inspire staff. Garcia exemplified all of these traits by choosing to go above and beyond the call of duty in providing news coverage to his community on May 24, 2022, when it handled the accidental deaths of 19 children and two adults.

At the start of the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where the majority of the population is Latino, Garcia had only been executive editor for 14 months.

Under his direction, the Texas House committee report on the Uvalde School shooting was translated into Spanish and published as a public service by the English-language Statesman.

A group of Spanish-speaking journalists from the USA Today Network, as well as from other parts of the country and Mexico, worked together to translate the article. 10,000 copies of The Statesman were printed, and staff members, including Garcia, gave them away for free across Uvalde at churches, eateries, the library, and other places.

The son of Cuban immigrants, Garcia, was praised by the judges for his contributions to the Miami Herald, el Nuevo Herald, The Naples Daily News, USA Today, and Republican, among other publications. By doing Investigative Reporters and Editors, the News Leaders Association, and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, he has also supported media.

The judges of the NPF said they were inspired by a new generation of nonprofit news organizations whose editors are using innovative methods to engage, inform, and assist underserved communities at a time when many newspapers have shut down or are struggling due to financial issues, ownership changes, or layoffs. Among them are S. Mitra Kalita, co-founder of URL Media, Sarah Alvarez, founder and editor-in-chief of Outlier Media in Detroit, Emily Ramshaw, and Amanda Zamora, co-founders of The 19th News.