Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service (NNS), the nonprofit newsroom dedicated to covering the city’s diverse neighborhoods, has promoted veteran journalist Edgar Mendez to managing editor following a national search. Two reporters have also been hired by NNS.
The hiring was announced in a Sept. 3 story in the Milwaukee Community Journal. According to the story:
Mendez, a Milwaukee native and one of the newsroom’s founding reporters, will guide the award-winning newsroom into its next chapter of community-driven journalism.
Mendez’s promotion marks a moment of growth, as NNS expands its staff.
Alex Klaus has joined NNS as an education reporter focused on accountability and solutions in Milwaukee’s K-12 schools, while Jonathan Aguilar, a bilingual multimedia journalist, brings reporting and photojournalism expertise to the team.
Mendez is a resident of Milwaukee’s Clarke Square neighborhood. His award-winning reporting earned him a 2018 Regional Edward R. Murrow Award and multiple Milwaukee Press Club honors between 2015 and 2021. He has reported on critical community issues ranging from taverns and marijuana law enforcement to lead in water service lines and the opioid epidemic.
His notable stories include an examination of families of homicide victims fighting for justice in Milwaukee’s hundreds of unsolved murder cases; an investigation into the city’s drug crisis, revealing how older Black men are dying of overdoses at staggering rates; and a look at Sherman Park three years after unrest, probing whether reforms improved police-community relations.
