Matt Hickman
The Herald/Review has named Matt Hickman its new managing editor.
Hickman, 48, previously worked for the paper from 1998-2015 as a sports reporter, sports editor and assistant managing editor, during which time he won more than 30 statewide awards, mostly for sports coverage and column writing.
In 2015, Hickman left Cochise County to be the managing editor at another Wick Communications property, the Williston Herald in Williston, North Dakota, and in 2016 he added M.E. duties at the Sidney Herald across the Montana state line.
By mid-2016 he was off to Alaska to become the managing editor at the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman in Wasilla, and in 2017 took over the same position at the Anchorage Press. By the start of 2018, he was promoted to general manager of Alaska’s only alternative weekly newspaper where he remained until April of 2022.
Up until last week, Hickman worked in New York City for the Penske Media Corporation as a reporter covering the business and technology behind the fashion industry for the B2B-focused Sourcing Journal, as well as its sister publications Women’s Wear Daily and Footwear News.
“Penske is a great company and I loved living in New York, but there’s something about the engagement and fulfillment of working at a community newspaper, and for a company like Wick Communications, that just never leaves you,” said Hickman, a 1993 Buena High School graduate. “Cochise County has always been home to me and it’s exciting to reconnect with so many people I knew from before.”
During Hickman’s first stint with the Herald/Review, the paper’s audience was limited to just Sierra Vista and Bisbee. Now that it includes the entire county, Hickman is eager to enable the paper to act as a conduit connecting Douglas to Benson, Fort Huachuca to Willcox, and all points in between.
“Cochise County is so vast and so diverse, but the interests and issues that affect all of its people are so common to one another,” he said. “The Herald/Review is in a unique position — and has an equally unique responsibility — to be that connecting force.”
He sees silos separating different media platforms being barriers that need to be dismantled, as well, and believes the NABUR platform launched by Wick Communications in 2020 can be a tool to help achieve that singularity.
“The Herald/Review is so much more than just a newspaper — it’s podcasts, videos, social media, magazines, photo galleries, an events hub, a marketplace for ideas,” Hickman said. “But whatever the medium, the purpose is the same — to tell meaningful stories truthfully, sincerely and fearlessly.”
Hickman says he’ll make every effort to meet with anyone in the county who would like to share their thoughts on the direction of the paper, the world, or even just the breeze. Email him at matt.hickman@
