A new era for news in southern New Mexico has begun with the Roswell Tribune.
Following the sale of the Roswell Daily Record after 135 years of family ownership to Pat Davis and New Mexico News Group, El Rito Media took the opportunity to expand into Roswell and Chaves County, ensuring that news in southeast New Mexico’s largest city stays local and vibrant.
RoswellTribune.com will provide hyperlocal news and sports content for the people of Roswell and Chaves counties, for free with no paywall.
El Rito already owns five newspapers in New Mexico, more than any single company, after it purchased the Current-Argus, Alamogordo News and Ruidoso News in June 2024 from Gannett, adding to a portfolio that already included the Artesia Daily Press and the Rio Grande Sun in Espanola – all dedicated to reinvigorating local news and sports coverage.
Here are El Rito’s key staff members that will be contributing to the Roswell Tribune in news and sports. All stories are published online at RoswellTribune.com.
Anyone looking for assistance in advertising with the Roswell Tribune can contact account executives Ashley Curbello at acurbello@elritomedia.com or Trina Thomas at tthomas@elritomedia.com.
Anyone interested in writing for the Roswell Tribune can contact Managing Editor Adrian Hedden at achedden@elritomedia.com. Story tips are also welcome.
Alex Ross – News Reporter
Alex Ross worked as a breaking news reporter at the Roswell Daily Record for about seven years, until September 2025 when he took a short-lived job at the New Mexico Political Report where he worked until December of that year.
He worked for El Rito Media previously as a legislative reporter covering the 2026 Legislative Session and will rejoin the staff to cover the City of Roswell, its school system, breaking news and features in the community.
Ross had his first newspaper job at the Havre Daily News in 2014, where he covered myriad beats in everything from local politics and crime to human interest features and coverage of northern Montana’s Indigenous community.
He was able to interview national politicians such as U.S. Sen. John Tester (D-MT) and former-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and celebrities in the entertainment industry including Jeff Ament, bassist for famed grunge band Pearl Jam, who grew up in the nearby farming community Big Sandy, Montana.
His time in Montana, Ross said, especially showed him the value of local, community-driven journalism and the importance of emphasizing local voices and impacts in everything he writes.
Marshall Mecham – Sports Reporter
Marshall Mecham is the Roswell Tribune’s sports reporter, covering sports teams throughout the city and Chaves County, along with the New Mexico Military Institute.
Mecham is a 2026 graduate from New Mexico State University and came to El Rito through the statewide New Mexico Local News Fund Fellowship Program. He stopped first at the Artesia Daily Press where he’s covered everything from sports to news, including the Eddy County Fair.
He moved around a lot as a child as his father Arnold Mecham works with the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. That meant the family moved eight times while Mecham was growing up, to Portland and Sandy, Oregon; Corpus Christi and El Paso, Texas; Las Cruces, New Mexico; and Blaine, Washington.
Mecham played basketball for the Artesia Bulldogs in Highschool during the 2021-22 school year, helping the team win a district championship.
Adrian Hedden – Managing Editor
Adrian Hedden was promoted to managing editor at El Rito Media in April 2025 after almost a decade covering southeast New Mexico for the Carlsbad Current-Argus.
In that role, he oversees news and sports coverage for El Rito Media’s four southern New Mexico newspapers: the Current-Argus, Artesia Daily Press, Alamogordo News and Ruidoso News.
That list now includes the Roswell Tribune.
Hedden moved to Carlsbad to take the reporting job in 2016 after serving in the national Pulliam Fellowship program hosted by Gannett, which stationed him at the Arizona Republic in Phoenix for six months.
In Phoenix, Hedden covered breaking news and crime, along with community news in suburbs around the West Valley around Phoenix such as Peoria, Avondale and Goodyear.
Since moving to New Mexico, Hedden covered several topics important to Carlsbad and Eddy County, including the oil and gas industry, nuclear issues centered around the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, local government, business and crime.
JT Keith – Regional Sports Editor
JT (Joseph Thomas) Keith serves as regional sports editor for El Ritos’s southern New Mexico newspapers, focusing on Carlsbad and Artesia. He will be overseeing and planning sports content for the Roswell Tribune.
Keith landed in southeast New Mexico, stationed in Artesia starting on Feb. 10, 2025, where he works out of the local newspaper’s downtown office to cover not only the iconic Bulldogs football team but also lesser-known stars of the city’s sports scenes including cheerleaders and band members.
Before his current job in New Mexico, Keith worked in Jackson, Mississippi, as USA Today’s HBCU (historically Black colleges and universities) sports editor from May 2022 to August 2024. In that role, Keith’s coverage included the Jackson State University Tigers, and interviews with football legend Deion Sanders, who served as head coach of the Jackson State football team for three seasons from 2020 to 2022.
At USA Today, Keith also covered Jackson State stars Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter, who went on to play at University of Colorado Boulder along with “Coach Prime,” and edited the work of more than 50 writers in the south region.
Todd Fuqua – Sports
A native of Portales, Fuqua was hired March 31, 2025 by El Rito to cover sports for the Ruidoso News and Alamogordo News. He will regularly contribute regional sports stories and event coverage to the Roswell Tribune.
For Fuqua, who started his writing career on his grandma’s Woodstock typewriter as a child, the journey into local journalism began at Eastern New Mexico University, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in communications in December 1993.
Fuqua moved back to Ruidoso, where he lives with his parents, in February 2025 after working for ENMU in its Office of Public Relations and Advancement since 2019. He earned his master’s degree in communications in 2022 and published the Green and Silver alumni magazine throughout his second act at the university.
Spencer Fordin – News
Spencer Fordin started at the Alamogordo News on June 15 as its managing editor. He will provide regional news and feature stories to the Roswell Tribune and assist in editing and planning its publication.
He said his career as a journalist led him from “sea to shining sea,” as he spent decades writing for MLB.com, Major League Baseball’s online platform.
Fordin shifted to news on the Cayman Islands where he wrote for community’s daily newspaper, the Cayman Compass from 2017 to 2019, and later at Pasatiempo, an arts and culture magazine published by the Santa Fe New Mexican from 2023 to 2024.
His first job was at the University of Florida’s student newspaper, the Independent Florida Alligator, covering the full range of sports offered by the school’s Division I athletic program. That meant writing about high profile sports such as baseball and football but also spotlighting less publicized programs such as women’s soccer and gymnastics.
Mundo Carrillo – News
Mundo Carrillo, a native of Pecos, N.M., has spent several years reporting on sports and criminal justice in New Mexico, mostly for the Santa Fe New Mexican and Albuquerque Journal.
He will be contributing similar regular coverage to the Roswell Tribune along with stories of importance from around the region.
Carrillo is stationed at the Ruidoso News where he started on July 1 after spending two years as an elementary school teacher in Santa Fe. He being a teacher showed him first-hand what issues were affecting local students and their families.
When not reporting the news, Mundo likes to check out local breweries, play bass, and explore all the great things that New Mexico has to offer.
