Luige del Puerto, an award-winning journalist, is joining Colorado Politics as managing editor.

Del Puerto currently serves as publisher and editor of Arizona News Service, a Phoenix-based media company that covers public policy and politics in the desert state. In this role, he oversees newsroom operations and manages the business units of Arizona News Service, which publishes the Arizona Capitol Times, the Yellow Sheet Report and the Arizona Legislative Report.

“It’s an exciting time to join Colorado Politics, particularly as Colorado seeks to define its political identity. I’m curious to see where it all lands. Whatever emerges out of this societal dialogue, Colorado Politics is best positioned to cover it,” Del Puerto said.

Chris Reen, president and CEO of Clarity Media, the parent company of Colorado Politics, said Del Puerto will help shape and expand political coverage in the state.

“We’ve been following the success of the Arizona Capitol Times for some time now as we continue to grow and expand Colorado Politics. We’re fortunate to have Luige with his strong entrepreneurial and journalistic background joining our team,” Reen said.   

Del Puerto brings to the fore two decades of journalism excellence and proven newsroom leadership.  

Under Del Puerto’s leadership, the Arizona Capitol Times snagged nearly 130 journalism awards since 2017. Most recently, the political newspaper won first place in Reporting and Newswriting Excellence in this year’s Arizona Newspaper Association’s Better Newspaper Contest. All told, the Arizona Capitol Times crew secured 20 awards, sweeping several in the individual categories, notably Investigative Reporting and Best News Story.

A native of the Philippines, Del Puerto cut his journalistic teeth covering crime in the streets of Metro Manila, where he worked for several newspapers, including the Philippines’ largest English daily newspaper, The Philippine Daily Inquirer. At the Inquirer, he pursued stories about labor, elections and national security, covering coup d’état attempts in his home country. He was also part of the paper’s special projects team. He and his wife moved to the United States in 2006.

Del Puerto graduated with honors from the school of journalism at the University of Philippines. He joined the Arizona Capitol Times shortly after moving to Arizona. He has won numerous local and national awards in the U.S. for his political reporting.

He recently penned an opinion piece celebrating Filipino journalist Maria Ressa’s Nobel Prize.

“Ressa deserves the Nobel Prize. The reporters at Rappler, the news publication she founded, deserve it. They are among the most fearless journalists in the world. One of their editors is a very close friend – we worked together at another paper for years. They expose corruption everywhere every day, knowing this approach to journalism can land them in jail or worse. They do it anyway,” Del Puerto wrote.  “And that’s also why I’m so grateful for the press protections we have in the United States. But I always tell people – democratic institutions are fragile. Make no mistake about it. Puncture that thin wall, and before you know it, the bulwark collapses and chaos rushes in.”