Dallas Morning News names Nelson editor

DALLAS - Colleen McCain Nelson has been named executive editor of The Dallas Morning News, effective Aug. 11. Nelson, a Pulitzer Prize winner, returns to lead the newsroom where she spent nearly 12 years as a writer early in her career.

The 28-year journalist is the executive editor of The Sacramento Bee and the California regional editor for McClatchy Media. She leads the journalists in McClatchy’s five California newsrooms – The Sacramento Bee, The Fresno Bee, The Modesto Bee, The San Luis Obispo Tribune and the Merced Sun-Star.

She replaces Katrice Hardy, who left The News in February to become CEO of The Marshall Project.

Grant Moise, publisher of The News, said, “We conducted a nationwide search to find the best executive editor in the United States, and I am confident we found that leader in Colleen. Colleen is an outstanding journalist, and has been at the forefront of journalism’s digital transformation. We can’t wait to welcome her back to The Dallas Morning News.”

Under her leadership, Sacramento Bee journalists have won several national and state journalism awards. In 2024, Sacramento Bee journalists won a Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists and earned honors as an IRE Award Finalist and as a runner-up in the National Headliners Awards. Most recently, journalists won six first-place awards at the California Journalism Awards.

Nelson spent more than a decade at The News, where she wrote about local, state and national politics as a reporter and later as an editorial writer and columnist. In 2010, Nelson and her colleagues at The News were awarded the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing, recognition for a series of editorials that condemned the stark economic and social disparity separating Dallas’ thriving northern half and struggling southern half.

“While my career has taken me to the West Coast and even the White House, I learned about the power of local journalism at The Dallas Morning News,” Nelson said. “The chance to build on The Dallas Morning News’ distinguished legacy, current momentum and innovative vision for the future is a singular opportunity in journalism.”

Nelson, 51, was raised in Salina, Kan., and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Kansas. She started her career as a reporter at the Wichita Eagle and covered local and state government for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Before going to California, she was McClatchy’s national opinion editor. She was vice president and editorial page editor of the Kansas City Star, which produced three Pulitzer finalists.

She previously worked as a White House correspondent for The Wall Street Journal and as a political reporter, chronicling two presidential campaigns. In 2016, she criss-crossed the country with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. As a White House reporter, she wrote about the policies, politics and personalities in President Barack Obama’s administration, traveling the world with the president and vice president.

Nelson has served on the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and on the California News Publishers Association Board of Directors.

She’s a member of the Kansas Newspaper Hall of Fame and the University of Kansas Women’s Hall of Fame.