María Sánchez Díez, new head of EL PAÍS United States edition
Spanish journalist, formerly senior editor for digital narratives at ‘The New York Times,’ joins as deputy editor
EL PAÍS editor Jan Martínez Ahrens has appointed María Sánchez Díez (Madrid, 42) as head of EL PAÍS’ United States edition with the rank of deputy editor. A journalism graduate of Carlos III University in Madrid, a Fulbright scholar and a Tow-Knight Center fellow at the City University of New York (CUNY), Sánchez Díez joins the paper after spending the past five years at The New York Times, where she served as senior editor for digital narratives, developing innovative stories with newsrooms in New York, Washington, San Francisco, London, and Seoul.
With more than a decade of experience in the United States, Sánchez Díez arrived at The New York Times from The Washington Post, then led by Marty Baron, where during an especially turbulent period she guided the national section’s operations and audience strategy as operations and audience editor during coverage of the pandemic, the death of George Floyd, and the 2020 U.S. presidential election. She was also part of the team that published 2ºC: Beyond the Limit, a multimedia series on climate change that won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting.
“The appointment of María Sánchez Díez is an investment in the present and the future. Her knowledge and experience, demonstrated at outlets such as The New York Times and The Washington Post, represent a boost for EL PAÍS and its U.S. editions, and will strengthen a high-quality team,” Martínez Ahrens said. EL PAÍS launched its United States edition in May 2024. Aimed at a Spanish-speaking community of more than 60 million people, the initiative reinforces the newspaper’s international strategy and consolidates its presence in the Americas, where it already has editions in Mexico, Colombia, and Chile, in addition to EL PAÍS in English.
Since its launch, EL PAÍS US has prioritized coverage focused on the needs of the growing Hispanic population, combining national reporting with a local approach. Its team of journalists, coordinated from New York by Paola Nagovitch, works in majority-Hispanic states such as California and Texas, as well as in Florida and Washington, D.C. The project, which is expanding, is considered strategic for Prisa, EL PAÍS’ publishing company, and relies on a global network of more than 400 journalists. Javier Lafuente, deputy director of EL PAÍS América, will continue as the paper’s head for the entire continent.
After starting her career at Spanish outlets, María Sánchez Díez moved to the United States in 2016 as a reporter covering migration for Univision in Miami, editing and reporting for the network’s digital edition and driving multimedia initiatives. Her investigation into the language barriers affecting Spanish-speaking victims of domestic violence received the 2017 Elaine Rivera Award for Civil Rights and Social Justice from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), and she was part of the team that won the Ortega y Gasset Journalism Award for the podcast Mejor vete, Cristina (2018). After leaving Univision, she worked at investigative newsroom ProPublica, where she led the Electionland project during the 2018 midterm elections, honored with the Online News Association (ONA) award for excellence in collaborations.
In addition to her editorial work and innovative profile, Sánchez Díez has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, EL PAÍS, Quartz, The Atlantic, elDiario and Condé Nast Traveler, and she teaches feature writing and reporting in the bilingual journalism master’s program at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism in New York. This year she received the 25th José Manuel Porquet Journalism Award in Huesca in recognition of her professional career and contribution to innovation in journalism. The jury highlighted her role in bringing key figures from U.S. culture and society closer to Spanish-speaking readers.
Under the newsroom statute, María Sánchez Díez’s appointment was subjected to a non-binding vote that received majority support.
Correspondent office in China
The editor-in-chief has also appointed journalist Silvia Ayuso Determeyer (Madrid, 51) as the new head of the paper’s correspondent office in China, highlighting her “long and meritorious career” across numerous postings. Ayuso, regarded as one of the Spanish journalists with the broadest and most varied international experience, worked at Agencia Efe and, as a correspondent, at the German news agency DPA before joining EL PAÍS’ Washington bureau in 2014.
In 2006, what was supposed to be a six-month assignment in Chile to cover Michelle Bachelet’s rise to the presidency and, later, that of Evo Morales in Bolivia, ended up taking her to Cuba (2006–2009) to report on the transition from Fidel to Raúl Castro. Ayuso subsequently served as a correspondent in the United States for eight years: first during Barack Obama’s presidency, and later following Donald Trump’s rise to power in 2017. Back in Europe, she has served as a correspondent for EL PAÍS in France and, since 2022, in Brussels. In her new posting in Beijing, Ayuso will have journalist Inma Bonet as her deputy.
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