The Arizona Daily Star's new editor is hopeful about the future of local news

The Arizona Daily Star is nearly 150 years old. But, it hasn’t been immune to the economic reality facing newspapers today.

The paper laid off nearly 25% of its staff in 2023 — but Alexis Huicochea made it through and says she’s hopeful about the continued need for local news.

Huicochea is a native of Tucson who’s just been named the paper’s new executive editor. She’s been at the paper for 21 years. She started as an overnight crime reporter.

Full conversation

ALEXIS HUICOCHEA: So when I got started here at the Arizona Daily Star, I was a crime reporter. So there were plenty of interesting stories at the time. The beat required that I handle these situations, handle these stories with great care because I was encountering people at really tragic times in their lives, and it was my job to convey their stories, to share their stories in a respectful way, and also to put into context for our community what resources are available to people within our community, and also what government officials are doing to address the situations that we were facing within our community.

There was this really interesting story. I recall I worked nights when I first came on at the Arizona Daily Star. I was listening to the police scanner, as most cops reporters do. I was alone in the newsroom, and I heard over the police scanner that there was an earthmover, which is this gigantic piece of construction equipment — it looks like it sounds, an earthmover — that was riding down one of our main roadways, Grant Road, and the police were trying to stop it.

And I called my editor immediately and let them know what was going on. And he said, "Well, go follow it." And so that really showed me. I jumped into my car, got on the road, and rather than trying to drive away from where the earthmover was barreling down the roadway and had the potential to roll over vehicles like tin cans. I drove toward that to see what I could learn.

LAUREN GILGER: Always going into the fire as a journalist, right? So you’ve spent your whole career there, you’ve been an editor there for some time as well, and now you’re taking the helm as executive editor. What does that feel like at this point in your career and as someone who is born and raised from Tucson and now is taking the helm of the big paper there?

ALEXIS HUICOCHEA: So it’s an incredible honor to have been named executive editor. I’ve been here for 21 years. I spent the first half of that as a reporter. I was born and raised in Tucson, and I’ve always been impressed as a teenager reading the coverage that the Arizona Daily Star had with the compelling storytelling, with the insight that reporters were able to give. They were just really always the expert voice as far as I was concerned before I started working here. And so it was always my goal to come back home to Tucson and to work at the Arizona Daily Star. And once I got my foot in the door, I just felt so proud to be here.

And so having the opportunity to now lead this newsroom, it’s something that is a dream come true, not because I look for the accolades. I’ve never wanted to be the story myself personally. I’ve just always spent my career trying to produce the strongest work possible, because that is the way that I can personally serve my community. I don’t have the skills to be a doctor. I am not out fighting fires, but what I know I can do is I can dig into stories and find stories and convey them in a way that makes sense to people and give them the information that they need to know.

LAUREN GILGER: Yeah, it sounds like you clearly are passionate about local journalism. But let me ask you about the landscape in terms of news right now, not just in Tucson, but really around the country.

I mean, the decimation of print newspapers, the Star laid off 10 people in its newsroom just a few years ago and ended its Spanish-language sister paper as well. What’s the future of papers like the Daily Star look like to you in terms of how you find business models, how you maintain staff and sort of that community voice in the future?

ALEXIS HUICOCHEA: You know, the industry has evolved, like you said, across the country since I’ve gotten into it, but more so over a longer period of time. I think the one thing that remains true is that people still need verified information, and they need expert journalists who will hold government officials accountable, who can get access to documents, who can cut into these deep topics that impact people’s everyday lives.

And I genuinely believe that the Arizona Daily Star is doing a really good job of it. We are a newspaper first and foremost, that’s how we got our start, but we also have our digital presence, and we work every day to strategize to how we can meet people where they are. We know they’re constantly looking at their phones, so we’re pushing news to their phones. We know they’re scrolling on social media, and maybe that’s the way that they’re going to encounter what they need to know, so we focus on getting our stories out on as many platforms as we can.

We understand that people are very visual now, maybe they want video, so we are constantly adapting our strategies to make sure that we are delivering the kind of news that people expect and need in their lives in the way that they are comfortable with accessing it.

LAUREN GILGER: Are you hopeful for the future of local news?

ALEXIS HUICOCHEA: I really am. I think the fact that there are so many independent news organizations that have been popping up to be able to fill voids, because as you have said, we at the Star have laid off staff, as have newspapers and television stations across the country.

But people are still seeking out this information, and there’s so much misinformation out there, especially with how much access people have to the internet, that it’s important to try to cut through that. So even if it’s not being presented in the way that we do it now, I really do believe that in some form there will be a place for the kind of journalism that we do at the Arizona Daily Star.

LAUREN GILGER: We’ll end on a hopeful note. Alexis Huicochea joining us, new executive editor of the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson. Alexis, thank you so much for coming on The Show. Good luck and congratulations.

ALEXIS HUICOCHEA: Thank you so much.