Bulletin welcomes new managing editor

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Also see the column by Bulletin Editor & Publisher Richard Coltharp about his impending departure.)

A familiar name in southern New Mexico journalism will join the Las Cruces Bulletin staff Friday, Dec. 1, when Algernon D’Ammassa reports to work as the Bulletin’s new managing editor. 

From 2018 to 2022, D’Ammassa covered local government, business, regional and investigative stories for the Las Cruces Sun-News. He left the daily newspaper in fall 2022 to serve as editor of the Deming Headlight after a local publisher purchased the 142-year-old Luna County outlet from the Gannett corporation. Under his leadership, the Headlight recently won seven state journalism awards, including the general excellence award for small weeklies statewide, while the entire news staff took home individual honors for their writing and reporting. 

At the Bulletin, D’Ammassa  will head an effort to increase news reporting, in addition to the community events and profiles Bulletin readers know and love; and he will contribute local stories and opinion articles on a regular basis himself. 

"We are very excited for Algernon to take the helm of our newsroom at the Bulletin,” said Belinda Mills the Bulletin’s Southwest Regional Publisher. “I have followed his work for years and will attest that he is an excellent journalist with a deep understanding of the importance and responsibility of local journalism."

D’Ammassa emphasized the Bulletin’s approach to news will be an addition to, rather than a drastic change to what readers have come to expect and love from the 54-year-old weekly.

“Las Cruces is the second-largest city in New Mexico,” he said, “and sits near a growing economic engine by way of our border with Mexico as well as the fields of the Mesilla Valley. The Bulletin saw an opportunity to fill gaps in news coverage of our community and I’m excited to help out.”