Matthew Watkins named Texas Tribune’s next editor-in-chief, succeeding Sewell Chan

Watkins, a nine-year veteran of the Tribune, takes over as Chan becomes executive editor of Columbia Journalism Review.

I’ve got big news to share: Matthew Watkins, a longtime staffer and veteran of Texas journalism, will take the reins as The Texas Tribune’s next editor in chief on Sept. 9. He will succeed Sewell Chan, who is returning to his hometown of New York City to serve as the executive editor of Columbia Journalism Review.

Matthew, currently our managing editor of news and politics, is the perfect leader for the Tribune’s next chapter. He has earned the trust of our journalists, as well as his colleagues across the organization, and understands the stories that matter most to Texans.

Matthew is a Texas native, born in Houston and raised in Austin. He attended public schools and graduated from Texas A&M University. He’s worked in Texas journalism his entire career, first at The Eagle in Bryan-College Station and then at The Dallas Morning News.

Matthew’s more than nine years at the Tribune coincide with the tremendous growth and evolution of the organization. He joined the newsroom in 2015 as a higher education reporter. He then became the newsroom’s first breaking news editor, building out a team designed to increase the urgency of our news coverage. In 2019, he became politics editor, working to add more accountability and explanatory reporting to one of our core subject areas, and was promoted to managing editor for news and politics.

In recent years, Matthew has helped guide our coverage of the pandemic, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the impeachment and trial of our state’s attorney general, plus multiple election cycles and legislative sessions. Recently he has been leading on key initiatives, including We the Texans, our yearlong examination of the state of democracy in Texas, and our current partnership with FRONTLINE, through which we are examining immigration and politics along the Texas-Mexico border.

This is a natural transition for the Tribune, and Matthew will inherit a newsroom made better by Sewell’s leadership. In the three years he's been at the Tribune, Sewell has raised our level of journalistic quality, rigor and ambition. He hired award-winning journalists, built out our photo team, and rebooted our premium politics newsletter, The Blast. He launched our regional reporting initiative, providing coverage of areas of Texas that are severely underserved. He recruited dynamic new leaders for our regional, audience and events teams and for fellowships, training and career development. He led our coverage of the 2022 Uvalde tragedy, for which the Tribune shared a National Magazine Award and the Collier Prize for State Government Accountability and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize, all for the first time.

During Sewell’s tenure, the Tribune’s newsroom has become more representative of our diverse state. Sewell has also been a powerful voice for journalism, reflected in his selection in 2022 to join the board of the Pulitzer Prizes. He has championed our commitment to our nonpartisan mission and to fairness, accuracy and context in our reporting. Finally, he has been an invaluable partner as we have worked to put the Tribune on a more sustainable footing and cultivate the next generation of leadership. I am grateful for Sewell’s service and can’t wait to see what he does at Columbia Journalism Review to chronicle journalism’s evolving mission during this critical period for American democracy.

As you all know, this is a pivotal time for journalism. To succeed, we must continue to improve the reach of our journalism so that it engages Texans, informs them and holds their government accountable. Our work must be fair, accurate and approachable. We must be relentlessly focused on being relevant to the lives of our state’s diverse population. And we must stay ahead of changes in technology that affect how people get their news. I look forward to working with Matthew, along with the rest of our organization’s talented leaders, on this and other important work.

Matthew starts right after our Texas Tribune Festival, Sept. 5-7 in downtown Austin.

Please join me in thanking Sewell for his service to Texas and the Tribune, and welcoming Matthew to his new role!

Just in: Former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming; U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pennsylvania; and Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt will take the stage at The Texas Tribune Festival, Sept. 5–7 in downtown Austin. Buy tickets today!