Rene Sanchez

Notable work and positions

The Times-Picayune / The Advocate / NOLA.com - editor and vice president of news
Star Tribune (Minneapolis) - former editor and senior vice president
The Washington Post - former reporter (17 years)

Biography

Rene Sanchez is editor and vice president of news for The Times-Picayune, The Advocate and NOLA.com in Louisiana, a role he took in 2022 after nearly nine years as editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. A New Orleans native, Sanchez earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from Loyola University New Orleans, where his career began as a night clerk at The Times-Picayune. He spent 17 years as a reporter for The Washington Post, including six years covering California and the American West from Los Angeles, before joining the Star Tribune in 2004 as a regional reporter. He was later named Sunday editor, then deputy managing editor and managing editor, overseeing the paper's metro, business, sports, investigative and special-projects coverage. In that role he helped lead the Star Tribune's 2013 Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into unregulated day care deaths in Minnesota, and the paper also won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting on the murder of George Floyd during his tenure as editor. He returned to his home state in 2022 to lead the newsrooms of The Advocate in Baton Rouge and Lafayette and The Times-Picayune in New Orleans.

Career highlights

• 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting · Helped lead the Star Tribune's investigation into child deaths at unregulated Minnesota day care facilities.
• 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting · Star Tribune's coverage of the murder of George Floyd, under his editorship.
• Editor, The Times-Picayune / The Advocate / NOLA.com 2022-present · Returned to his native Louisiana to lead the state's largest newsrooms.