Spanish newspaper welcomes new editor
Posted on Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Noticias Libres, the Northwest Arkansas Spanish-language newspaper published by Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Inc., has named a new editor and writer.
Francisco Ayala Silva has accepted the position of managing editor of Noticias Libres. The native of El Salvador earned his bachelor’s degree in liberal studies from Iowa State University in Ames, and his master of arts degree in print journalism from American University in Washington.
“We recruited Francisco. We expect him to continue to help us improve Noticias Libres,” said Hector Cueva, circulation director for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s Northwest Arkansas edition and general manager of Noticias Libres.
Silva most recently lived in Kensington, Md., where he was a correspondent for El Diario de Hoy in El Salvador, a freelance reporter for Aqui y Alla, a television magazine show produced for the Washington metropolitan area and for a station in Central America, and as a reporter and photographer for Tiempos del Mundo, a sister publication of The Washington Times.
Silva’s duties include writing stories and editing the stories produced by contributing reporters and writers, along with photography and writing captions.
He hopes to expand the twosection newspaper to include a style section within a few weeks. The paper, which is published every Thursday, has a news and a sports section.
“Everybody knows about this newspaper. It really has a voice in the community. I want people to come to the paper to have their voice heard,” Silva said. “I want to publish the truth. No partisanship, just the truth.” The newspaper includes original stories generated by local journalists along with translated stories from area newspapers and news from a Spanish-language subscription service. Local columnists are also featured. The paper’s distribution has increased, Cueva said. Requests from the Spanish-language population in southern Missouri resulted in the paper’s availability in McDonald County. In Northwest Arkansas, readers can find the free newspaper in orange racks in stores that sell Hispanic products and at other businesses in Fayetteville, Springdale, Lowell, Rogers, Bentonville, Siloam Springs, Gentry, Decatur and Huntsville. The paper’s offices are in the Northwest Arkansas Times building, 212 N. East Ave. in Fayetteville. It can be contacted at (479 ) 442-1700. Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Inc. publishes the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and other Northwest Arkansas newspapers including The Benton County Daily Record and the Northwest Arkansas Times.
To contact this reporter: sroberts@arkansasonline. com
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