Trib Total Media names Luis Fabregas as next executive editor

A veteran, award-winning journalist and longtime Trib Total Media editor has been named the company’s next executive editor.

Luis Fabregas will assume the role Sept. 16, succeeding Executive Editor Susan McFarland, who announced she will retire in the fall.

“I am so pleased that we have someone with Luis’ talent, leadership ability and commitment to our readers moving into this crucial position,” Trib Total Media President and CEO Jennifer Bertetto said.

“His record of outstanding accomplishments in this business and his devotion to our region offers the perfect recipe for continued success for our journalists and our company as a whole.”

Fabregas, 54, of Natrona Heights will oversee the company’s two core print publications — the Westmoreland and Valley News Dispatch editions of the Tribune-Review — as well as TribLIVE.com, the most-visited news website in Western Pennsylvania.

In his new role, Fabregas will direct more than a dozen of the company’s weekly newspapers in Westmoreland and Allegheny counties and more than 30 hyper-local news websites that are part of the Trib’s Neighborhood News Network.

“I am thrilled for the opportunity to lead the news department where I started my journalism career,” he said. “I get to work alongside some of the best journalists in the industry in a company that’s not shy about innovation. More than anything, I am honored to continue our tradition of producing top-notch journalism.”

Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, he came to Pittsburgh to attend Duquesne University and never left.

At Duquesne, he obtained a bachelor’s degree in journalism and later a master’s degree in communications while working in public relations at Allegheny Valley Hospital.

He often jokes about leaving his home at 17 to attend a college he’d only seen in brochures in a city he’d never visited.

“I didn’t know a soul in Pittsburgh and had never even seen snow,” he said about his first days in Western Pennsylvania in 1984.

He’d heard about Duquesne from the teachers at his high school, but he knew little beyond that.

“I instantly fell in love with everything about Pittsburgh, even the weather. Maybe because I came from the land of Roberto Clemente, everyone always made me feel welcome. I was lucky to meet my wife here, and we’ve raised two amazing children here. This is my second home now and part of who I am.”

He joined the staff of the Valley News Dispatch in 1997, covering everything from New Kensington city government to the controversial plan to build the Pittsburgh Mills mall in Frazer.

“Shortly after we hired Luis, I ran into the CEO of the hospital. He told me: ‘Rick, you got a good one.’ He knew what he was talking about,” said Rick Monti, retired Valley News Dispatch editor and current Trib Total Media consultant.

Fabregas moved to the company’s Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in 1999, where he spent 14 years on the investigative team, specializing in health care and medical coverage. He also wrote a popular column with insights about current events, health and daily living.

He was later promoted to medical editor, deputy managing editor and in 2016 became managing editor of the Allegheny County and Valley News Dispatch newsroom.

In that role, he helped oversee coverage of the Tree of Life massacre in Squirrel Hill; the shooting of New Kensington police officer Brian Shaw; the protests against racism following the death of Antwon Rose; and the pandemic’s impact on the region.

McFarland said Fabregas carries the depth and breadth of experience to continue the winning ways of the Trib, which recently was named the “Best Overall Newspaper” in Pennsylvania for the third consecutive year by the Society of Professional Journalists.

“Luis is an incredibly talented journalist with a devotion to great reporting and writing,” McFarland said. “He is solidly committed to accountability journalism, to righting wrongs and representing those who can’t stand up for themselves.”

It’s a role he takes very seriously.

“We have a tremendous responsibility to report the truth and to serve as a watchdog over those in power,” he said. “That obligation has only amplified in recent years, and I don’t take that lightly.”

His skill as a journalist led him to produce award-winning stories, including an investigation into the nation’s liver transplant program that allocated organs to people who were not sick enough to need them; an examination of unnecessary financial incentives to dialysis treatment facilities; and a multi-part series about a 6-year-old girl from Pittsburgh who miraculously survived a rare brain tumor that doctors said would kill her.

Fabregas and his wife Jenny, a pharmacist at Allegheny Valley Hospital, are the parents of Daniel, who will be a junior in the fall at The Ohio State University, and Maria, who will be a senior at Highlands High School.

Fabregas said he looks ahead to being the keeper of the Trib’s long tradition of providing quality local news to readers throughout the region.

“The Trib has been a strong and constant voice of our communities for years. Our readers are loyal and always demand the best. And they should, because we owe it to them to look out for their interests. My job will be to make sure we live up to their expectations.”