Robert Moore

Notable work and positions

El Paso Matters — Founder, President and CEO
El Paso Times — former Editor and Vice President of News
Fort Collins Coloradoan — former Editor

Biography

Robert Moore is the founder, president and chief executive officer of El Paso Matters, an independent nonprofit news organization covering the El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juárez border region that he founded in 2019; the outlet began publishing in February 2020. Moore began his journalism career in Colorado before joining the El Paso Times in 1986 as an assistant city editor, rising through the newsroom to become executive editor, the paper's second-ranking news leader, in 2001. In 1998, he organized and moderated the only debates El Paso has hosted for statewide office, a Texas gubernatorial debate between then-Gov. George W. Bush and Democratic challenger Garry Mauro. In 2005, he was named editor of the Fort Collins Coloradoan in Colorado, a position he held until 2011, when he returned to El Paso as editor and vice president of news for the Times and its affiliated New Mexico newspapers.

Back at the Times, Moore led investigative reporting projects, including an examination of a scheme by the El Paso Independent School District to manipulate the state's school accountability ratings, reporting that led the state to remove the district's school board. He resigned as editor of the El Paso Times in 2017 and worked as a freelance reporter for national and statewide publications, including the Washington Post, ProPublica and Texas Monthly, focusing on border enforcement and immigration. In 2019, he founded El Paso Matters, and in its first months of publication the outlet was named one of four finalists for the Online News Association's General Excellence in Online Journalism Award.

Moore's journalism awards include the 2013 Benjamin C. Bradlee Editor of the Year Award from the National Press Foundation, the Burl Osborne Award for Editorial Leadership from the American Society of News Editors, the 2020 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award as part of a ProPublica reporting team examining Border Patrol failures in the case of a 16-year-old Guatemalan migrant who died in custody, and recognition as part of a Washington Post team named a Pulitzer Prize finalist for breaking news coverage of the 2019 mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio. In 2022, he became the first El Pasoan inducted into the Texas Newspaper Foundation Hall of Fame. Moore is a 1998 graduate of the University of Texas at El Paso, where he earned a bachelor's degree in political science, and also attended the University of Southern Colorado, now Colorado State University-Pueblo. He serves on the board of El Pasoans Fighting Hunger Food Bank and previously served on the boards of United Way of El Paso County, the Center Against Sexual and Family Violence, and the Child Crisis Center; he is a past president of the Colorado Press Association and Texas Associated Press Managing Editors. Moore is married to Kate Gannon, an associate professor of practice in multimedia journalism at the University of Texas at El Paso.

Career highlights

1. Founding of El Paso Matters, 2019Founded the nonprofit news organization, which began publishing in February 2020 and was named a finalist for the Online News Association's General Excellence in Online Journalism Award within its first months.

2. Pulitzer Prize finalist, 2020Part of a Washington Post reporting team named a Pulitzer Prize finalist for breaking news coverage of the August 2019 mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio.

3. Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, 2020Recognized as part of a ProPublica reporting team for coverage showing Border Patrol neglect in the death of a 16-year-old Guatemalan migrant held in custody.

4. Texas Newspaper Foundation Hall of Fame, 2022Became the first El Pasoan inducted into the Hall of Fame, and its first inductee to have spent part of a career at a nonprofit news organization.