Chicago Reporter names Fernando Diaz editor-in-chief and publisher

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Fernando Diaz

Fernando Diaz, onetime reporter for the Daily Herald and former managing editor of the Spanish-language daily Hoy Chicago, has been named editor-in-chief and publisher of The Chicago Reporter. His appointment, effective November 19, was announced Thursday by the nonprofit Community Renewal Society.

Diaz, who most recently was managing editor for digital coverage at the San Francisco Chronicle, succeeds Susan Smith Richardson, who stepped down earlier this year after five years at the award-winning investigative news organization that focuses on race, poverty and income inequality.

It’s a return to the Chicago Reporter for Diaz, who began his career as an intern while he was a student at Columbia College Chicago. He later spent two years there as an investigative reporter.

Chicago Reporter

“I am excited to welcome Fernando back to the Reporter,” Rev. Robbie Craig, interim executive director of Community Renewal Society, said in a statement. “His innovation in using a variety of digital mediums to present compelling stories promises to take the publication’s already excellent work to the next level.” Community Renewal Society has published the Reporter since 1972.

Before joining the San Francisco Chronicle in 2017, Diaz was senior editor of the Center for Investigative Reporting, managing editor of Hoy Chicago, community manager for news and opinion for ChicagoNow, and a reporter for the Daily Herald and the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, New York.

“I’m excited about the opportunity to deepen the Reporter’s commitment to the Chicago community and develop the next generation of investigative journalists,” Diaz said. On Twitter he added: “Thrilled to be coming home and working with all of you to deepen the @ChicagoReporter's tradition of investigative reporting.”

Diaz also served as president of the Chicago Headline Club, the Chicago chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists. In 2013 he received a Studs Terkel Community Media Award from Public Narrative.

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