{"id":458347,"date":"2026-09-09T16:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T16:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/458347\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T16:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T16:02:12","slug":"el-tecolote-longtime-mission-paper-loses-top-editor-as-staffers-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/458347\/","title":{"rendered":"El Tecolote, longtime Mission paper, loses top editor as staffers exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

El Tecolote, the longest-running bilingual newspaper in California<\/a>, has lost the majority of its staff over the past six months, including its editor-in-chief, Erika Carlos, who resigned, alleging in an Aug. 16 LinkedIn post<\/a> a lack of \u201corganizational support.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In all, seven people have left the paper since March, including reporter Yesica Prado, whose position was eliminated, and longtime distribution manager who Johny Garc\u00eda, who was fired. Managing editor Katie Beas is the only newsroom employee left from the editorial team of eight that started the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The paper\u2019s founder Juan Gonzales<\/a> stepped in as interim editor shortly after Carlos\u2019 departure. He did not return calls or messages sent to him.<\/p>\n

Imelda Carrasco, the executive director of Acc\u00edon Latina, the nonprofit that oversees El Tecolote, disputed accounts of internal strife and wrote in a statement, \u201cEmployee departures should not automatically be attributed to management or workplace concerns.\u201d She added that there were many reasons for the attrition, \u201cincluding career advancement, personal circumstances, changing professional interests, and new opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others, however, saw problems. Brooke Oliver, a 31-year Mission resident and influential arts and nonprofit lawyer known for protecting murals, served on Acci\u00f3n Latina\u2019s board and employment committee for two years before resigning in 2025 \u201cdue to unresolved concerns with the organization\u2019s employment practices,\u201d she wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In an email to Mission Local, she wrote of \u201ca painful contradiction\u201d in which \u201cthe board vigorously champions the Latinx working class publicly while denying that same support and encouragement to its own workers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese employee departures are Acci\u00f3n Latina\u2019s canary in the coal mine \u2014 a warning for all \u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

The organization had a brilliant opportunity to evolve under a new generation of leaders. Instead, an entrenched pattern of resisting change to preserve traditional authority has choked workforce retention and development as well as digital reporting advancements.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, many of those who left described a newsroom in disarray, with ongoing clashes between editorial and management over decision making and editorial independence. The details in this account are based on interviews with seven former staff members.<\/p>\n

All but Prado, a former reporter, and Carlos asked to remain anonymous to protect their work prospects.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The exodus of at least Carlos and Prado came after clashes that involved Carlos, Carrasco, and Ana Montes, the chair of Acc\u00edon Latina\u2019s board. Montes, who was appointed chair in 2022, had previous experience with El Tecolote, but the other two leaders were fairly new to the paper and their positions.<\/p>\n

Carlos, a former producer and audience editor at the San Francisco Chronicle became editor-in-chief in February 2024. She reported to Carrasco, who assumed her position as executive director a year later in March 2025.<\/p>\n

When asked about Oliver\u2019s remarks, Montes said, \u201cEveryone has their right to their opinion.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Souring relationship between Carrasco and Carlos\u00a0<\/p>\n

Carrasco began her tenure at Acci\u00f3n Latina with a budget of just over $1.5 million, the largest the organization had ever had, according to a source close to the matter. The organization\u2019s current budget is unknown as its last posted tax documents are from 2023<\/a>, before Carlos or Carrasco began their positions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The relationship between Carlos and Carrasco began well, former employees said, but changed when Carrasco allegedly began to meddle in editorial affairs.<\/p>\n

In December 2025, former reporters said, Carrasco instructed the newsroom to slow down a public-records request to the office of District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder. Carrasco allegedly told the reporters not to overwork Fielder\u2019s aides during the holidays, and questioned why the reporters were targeting the supervisor\u2019s office.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Carrasco subsequently requested access to a spreadsheet of all the public records requests submitted by El Tecolote reporters. After pushback from Carlos, Carrasco elevated the issue to board president Montes, who directed Carlos to comply with the executive director\u2019s request, according to Carlos.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was overreach,\u201d said one former reporter. \u201cShe\u2019s the executive and we\u2019re the journalists. Let us do our job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carlos described the conflict\u00a0 as a \u201csignificant disagreement\u201d in which she \u201cdeclined to provide [Carrasco] direct access to a log containing raw investigative reporting materials, because I believed those materials needed to remain within the editorial process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carrasco disputed the account, but said the executive director may \u201crequire appropriate access to organizational systems and records\u201d and that such access was \u201cnot intended to interfere with editorial decision-making.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about the incident, Montes said she remembered there was a question asked about the log. As for her ordering Carlos to grant access to Carrasco, she called the allegations inaccurate.<\/p>\n

Unhappiness in the newsroom<\/p>\n

At the same time that Carrasco and Carlos began feuding, newsroom morale was at a low. The former staffers described difficulties getting time-off approved, using their personal equipment for work and waiting months for reimbursements.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Prado, for instance, said that after getting approval from Carlos for paid leave to go to an investigative conference representing El Tecolote, Carrasco stepped in two weeks before the conference and denied the leave.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This was only one of many instances in which Carlos felt unable to make newsroom decisions. She wrote in a statement to Mission Local that \u201cnewsroom resources and staff needs\u201d suffered as a result.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Carlos said she helped secure, submit or build relationships for a dozen grants during her tenure, totaling just over $1 million. But despite having the budget to do so, she could not make timely staff decisions, she said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was increasingly unable to move forward funded resources, employment and freelance contracts and other basic operational needs necessary to sustain the newsroom\u2019s work,\u201d Carlos wrote in her LinkedIn post.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had resources to retain two journalists through the remainder of 2026 with new contracts after their existing contracts ended. Those positions had been funded and approved in the organizational budget. But while I was there, the contracts remained stalled in the approval process,\u201d Carlos wrote in a statement to Mission Local.<\/p>\n

The grants included the funding of a full-time reporter for two years through the California Local News Fellowship program, which provides newsrooms across the state with a fully-funded reporter for two years. El Tecolote has lost that fellow for at least the first year. (Mission Local has agreed to host that fellow.)<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my view, many of these losses \u2014 and our inability to replace that lost capacity quickly enough \u2014 were preventable. I believe stable contracts, timely hiring and better working conditions could have made a meaningful difference,\u201d Carlos wrote.<\/p>\n

For her part, Montes, the board president, declined to speak about personnel issues, citing confidentiality and privacy laws.<\/p>\n

A formal complaint and exodus<\/p>\n

The conflicts became severe enough by June for Carlos to file a formal complaint about Carrasco\u2019s management to the Acci\u00f3n Latina board. The complaint detailed concerns over Carrasco\u2019s alleged behavior and mismanagement. Carlos said there was a different complaint filed by a different employee the following month alleging inappropriate conduct at the leadership level.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Carrasco said that she was aware of only one complaint, and that a human resources specialist had opened an investigation to address the complaint.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we can\u2019t discuss the details of that investigation, we can confirm that the organization followed proper procedure in accordance with our policies. Employees are expected to be able to raise good-faith concerns without retaliation,\u201d Carrasco wrote.<\/p>\n

The complaints came too late to prevent an exodus of staff. Already, in March, photojournalist Pablo Unzueta had left four months before the end of a three-year fellowship. In July, reporter Mariana Duran left a month before her fellowship ended, to start another. And in August, business manager Kari Vides left to pursue a master\u2019s degree in London.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With little hope of change, Carlos also left in mid-August. Under her stewardship, El Tecolote won 10 journalism awards, including two at the Institute for Nonprofit News, four at the California Journalism Awards in 2025 and three by the Society of Professional Journalists in 2024. It published an average of six to seven stories a month over the past year.<\/p>\n

\u201cStepping down was, and continues to be, an extremely difficult decision because I have immense respect for El Tecolote and the community it serves,\u201d wrote Carlos.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Video reporter Emma Garcia departed last week after her fellowship ended. At present, the paper\u2019s fulltime staff includes only managing editor Beas. Founder Gonzales has stepped in to help.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the newspaper struggling to get its reporting out. For much of August, its most recently posted online story was from early July. It has recently published new stories from freelancers. Offering young journalists a shot at their first published piece is how Tecolote has long survived.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Carrasco pointed this out in her statement to Mission Local. The newspaper, she wrote, is\u00a0 \u201cstaffed to continue serving the community,\u201d listing a freelance team of 10 reporters, 10 photojournalists, a copy editor and a lay-out designer.<\/p>\n

Oliver, the former board member, was far from sanguine. \u201cThe board, and particularly its founders, are driving away their most valuable talent. This constant employee churn is expensive, alarms funders, and breeds internal strife.\u201d<\/p>\n

The upheaval, she wrote, was \u201ca call to action\u201d for an \u201cessential institution.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"El Tecolote, the longest-running bilingual newspaper in California, has lost the majority of its staff over the past…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[5092,75771,1556,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-458347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-24th-street","tag-el-tecolote","tag-mission","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}