Desert veteran Kate Franco named executive editor of The Desert Sun
Kate Franco, who's worked at The Desert Sun for the last 23 years, most recently as the managing editor, has been named executive editor of the newspaper.
“I’m honored and humbled to have been picked for this role,” Franco said. “It has been a privilege to represent The Desert Sun for 23 years so far, hopefully many more ahead.”
“Kate Franco is deeply invested in her community and this newsroom,” said Greg Burton, executive editor of The Arizona Republic, who also oversees the West Region for Gannett (which includes The Desert Sun). “She’s a leader who’s been in the trenches for more than two decades, making stories about the film festival or discriminatory housing better for readers and more urgent for decision makers. There’s nobody I trust more to lead The Desert Sun.”
In her more than two decades in The Desert Sun newsroom, Franco said she has learned from numerous executive editors who have each faced challenges "from economic booms and busts to the sweeping digital transformation of the media landscape."
“It’s no secret that we are headed into another era of change, and as a company and as an industry there is a renewed recognition of the huge appetite for local news,” Franco said. “That includes hyper-local news about short-term vacation rentals in neighborhoods or corruption at city hall. It is local and regional environmental news that we are helping to parse for our readers.”
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“It is what we do best, and I want to assure you that’s the kind of journalism that drives me to keep going after 23 years,” she added.
Franco was born and raised in Milwaukee and surrounding communities, where her family still lives. She earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Before arriving in the desert in 2000, Franco was an editor at community newspapers in La Crosse, Wisconsin; Winona, Minnesota; and Newport, Rhode Island. She also has experience in nonprofit communications and political speech writing.
Coming to the desert
Franco started her tenure at The Desert Sun in 2000 as an assistant news editor, earning a promotion to the news editor spot a few months later. Among her roles at The Desert Sun have been helming the features department and overseeing Desert magazine and Desert Outlook magazine.
She also spearheaded The Desert Sun’s events and strategic partnership efforts in the years before COVID-19. She founded the Desert Adventure Club and oversaw The Desert Sun’s Storyteller’s program for several years, relishing the chance to meet so many readers out in the community. She also served a term on The Desert Sun’s editorial board.
She was promoted to managing editor in 2019, leading The Desert Sun’s news coverage of the valley’s communities, city governments, schools, agencies, events and festivals, and the pandemic shutdowns and subsequent return to non-pandemic life.
“We as a newsroom team have a clear mission for the coming days and weeks and months,” Franco said. “First and foremost, we need to continue to bring a laser focus to our coverage of our local community, all of them, from Desert Hot Springs to Thermal to the high desert. We need to cover every corner of the desert with equal scrutiny and celebration."
Franco lives in Palm Desert with her husband, Al Franco, who was an editor at The Desert Sun for decades. They have extended family in the east valley and across Southern California, from Blythe to Murrieta. Franco is an avid swimmer, and when it gets too hot for that in the desert, she and Al enjoy quality vacation time with her family on Lake Michigan.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Kate Franco, 23-year veteran of The Desert Sun, named executive editor
