Charles Apple

It’s all over the SND/Update site: Matt Mansfield is leaving The San Jose Mercury News.

I know, I know. The news shocked me, too. It’s those buyouts again.  The Merc is undergoing its third round of buyouts and layoffs in 18 months.

Is that Bono? No, it’s Matt Mansfield, trying hard
to look like a college kid in Syracuse, February
2007. Photo by Steve Dorsey.
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Matt has been Deputy Managing Editor of the Merc for more than eight years, overseeing the design, graphics, photography and business reporting work there.

Matt is also currently Vice President for the Society for News Design. He’ll become president in 2009.

Of the society, I mean. Not the United States.

A 1990 graduate of Eastern Illinois University, Matt came from the same school that produced Cassie Armstrong of The Orlando Sentinel, Chris Soprych of The Rockford Register Star, Mike Rice of The Arizona Star, Matt Erickson of The Times of Northwest Indiana and Robb Montgomery, creator of VizEds.

He spent two years as Art Director of The State Journal-Register in Springfield, Ill., before moving to Munster, Ind., to become features editor of The Times of Northwest Indiana. He was promoted to Deputy Managing Editor, a post he held for three years before moving to the west coast in 2000.

Under Matt’s direction, the Merc has won five gold and more than 20 silver medals in the annual SND contest. Last year alone, the Merc won 55 SND awards; this year, the Merc took home 21 awards. In 2002, The Mercury News was named one of the “World’s Best-Designed Newspaper” by SND.

Matt doesn’t have an online portfolio posted — that we know of — but he oversees a lot of talented folks who do. Martin Gee. Pai. Kevin Wendt. Tiffany Pease. Ashley Dinges. Until recently, Jonathan Berlin, Michael Tribble, Carrie Hoover and Tim Ball.

Find a staff portfolio of work by Matt’s crew here.

I’d expect the loss of Matt would affect the Rethinking the Mercury News project to some degree. That project has its own blog. Plus, we’ve written about it before here, too.

Matt sings karoke with Denise Reagan.
Photo by Matt Erickson.
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Check out the very nice writeup by Jonathon Berlin at SND/Update.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 at 3:01 pm and is filed under Industry woes, Job changes, News design, Newspapers, VizEds Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.