20 Under 40 - 2004 Profile: Alfredo Carbajal-Madrid

PRESSTIME

By Presstime Magazine

First Published: December 2004

Managing Editor | Al Día, Dallas

It takes a rare combination of skills to lead a Spanish-language newspaper in the United States. It also requires a passion for building bridges over the cultural divides that separate the Hispanic market from mainstream America.

For Al Día, a 45,000-circulation Spanish-language daily published in concert with The Dallas Morning News, Managing Editor Alfredo Carbajal-Madrid embodies that rare combination of skill and passion.

"Newspapers play an important role in the lives of families and in connecting minorities to the larger society," he says. "We help people by telling them what's going on and what they can do to better their lives and communities."

Wanting to make a difference in the world by providing fair and accurate coverage of events that affect people's lives, Carbajal-Madrid landed his first job in the newspaper industry while attending high school in Mexico.

Rising through the ranks of his hometown paper, El Diario de Juarez, for 12 years, Carbajal-Madrid enrolled at the nearby University of Texas in El Paso to study journalism and expand his professional options. He commuted to school across the border and finally moved to the United States in 2000. It was here Carbajal-Madrid's passion for elevating the status of Spanish-language publications was born.

"Just because we're doing journalism in Spanish doesn't mean we have lower standards," he says of Al Día.

The National Association of Hispanic Journalists has recognized Al Día for its photography, and AlDiatx.com was voted the nation's best nonbroadcast news Web site by the Radio Television News Directors Association in Washington.

"I'm honored to be doing this," says Carbajal-Madrid. "Journalism is my life."

Education: 2000, B.A., journalism, University of Texas at El Paso.
Career: 1988-2000, news assistant/sports, sports reporter, general assignment reporter, assistant city editor, sports editor, wire/night editor, assistant editor, assistant managing editor, El Diario de Juarez, Mexico; 2000-03, editor, La Prensa, Riverside, Calif.; 2003-present, managing editor, Al Día, Dallas.
Personal: Age, 34. Born, Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Married, wife Yvonne.
Diversions: Reading, visiting museums, going to bars and listening to rock music.
Connections: Al Día, The Dallas Morning News Co., 508 Young St., Dallas, Texas 75206, (469) 231-8522, acarbajal@aldiatx.com.