El Paso Matters won the Newsroom of the Year award from Texas Managing Editors on Sunday, the first online-only and nonprofit news organization to win an honor that has previously gone to traditional newspapers.
“El Paso Matters looks like it punches way above its weight class in providing its readers with a steady selection of news about important issues facing their community. The report is concise and covers just the big issues. The community would seem to be well served by this newsroom,” the judge wrote.
In addition to Newsroom of the Year, El Paso Matters won 12 other honors in the annual statewide news awards announced this weekend in San Antonio.
“These awards are recognition of the strong work done every day by our relatively small team in telling El Paso’s most important stories,” said Robert Moore, founder and CEO of El Paso Matters. “The historic nature of the Newsroom of the Year award also is a testament to all the El Pasoans whose contributions over the years have made this work possible.”
El Paso Matters, which began publishing in 2020, competed in Class AA, for midsize Texas newsrooms. The Houston Chronicle won Newsroom of the Year in Class AAA, and the Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel won in Class A.
A unique international collaboration of El Paso Matters, La Verdad of Ciudad Juárez and Lighthouse Reports of The Netherlands won five awards for its investigation into a detention center fire in Ciudad Juárez that killed 40 migrants.
The most significant awards were first place for Star Online Package of the Year, and the “Star of Stars” award from the Headliners Foundation of Texas for the top online package among all Texas news organizations in 2024.
Editor Cindy Ramirez was El Paso Matters’ reporter on the project, and audience development leader Angela Saavedra designed and produced El Paso Matters’ online presentation of the project.
The detention center fire project also won second for Star Investigative Report of the Year, third place in team effort, and honorable mention for video.
That work won an international IRE Award for video investigation earlier this month.
“Impressive in-depth reporting on a mass tragedy attributable to international immigration politics and indifferent, if not uncaring, Mexican officials. Painstaking reconstruction of a horrible event that led to needless death,” the judge in the investigative report category said of the work.
Moore won awards in five categories, including second place for Star Reporter of the Year, for a collection of work that included multiple stories about accusations of prosecutorial misconduct by the El Paso District Attorney’s Office, an investigation into the disappearance of a Fort Bliss soldier, and a profile of a groundbreaking Black Army officer.
“Good legal reporting isn’t just about court filings and judicial rulings; it’s about telling a story. That is what Robert excels at: taking what other journalists might handle as routine legal matters and going in-depth to provide valuable context, backstory and implications,” the judge wrote. “He clearly knows how to work the phones and cultivate sources, and his writing is generally sharp and accessible. The story on the Fort Bliss soldier was particularly compelling reading and brought a number of systemic failures to light.”
Moore also won third place for freedom of information for the Fort Bliss soldier story; and honorable mentions for breaking news reporting for his story on El Paso’s CBS affiliate ending local news broadcasts, for comment and criticism for his review of Ron Stallworth’s book “The Gangs of Zion: A Black Cop’s Crusade in Mormon Country,” and for Star Opinion Writer of the Year for a collection of data-driven explorations of key issues facing El Paso.
Diego Mendoza-Moyers, who reports on environmental and utility issues, won second place in business reporting for a story on the impacts of potential tariffs on El Paso’s economy.
Government accountability reporter Elida S. Perez won honorable mention in freedom of information for her reporting on the disciplinary records of El Paso County sheriff candidates.
The El Paso Times and El Paso Inc. also won numerous awards in the contest. The Times competes in Class AA and Inc. in Class A.
The awards for El Paso Inc.: Reyes Mata, first place in specialty reporting, and second place in deadline writing and Star Reporter of the Year; Ruben R. Ramirez, first place in feature photography and honorable mention in sports photography; Victor R. Martinez, first place in feature writing; Steve Escajeda, first place in sports feature.
El Paso Times photographer Omar Ornelas won six honors: first place in feature photography and news photography, second place in photojournalism and Star Photojournalist of the Year, and honorable mentions in news photography and sports photography. The El Paso Times staff won second place in Star Online News Package and honorable mention in Star Breaking News Report.
At the conclusion of this year’s conference in San Antonio, Texas Managing Editors announced that the 2026 conference will be in El Paso.
The post El Paso Matters wins Texas Newsroom of the Year award, 12 other honors appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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