The San Antonio Heron is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit news organization that launched in June 2018. Any donation made to the Heron can be deducted under the Internal Revenue Code Section 170. EIN 83-1163274: SAN ANTONIO HERON, INC.
Who we are
The San Antonio Heron is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit news organization, which launched in June 2018. We are dedicated to producing thoroughly-reported and clearly-written stories about the changing downtown. Our goal for every story is to gather all the facts and opinions and present them in an objective way so the reader decides on their own how they feel about the issue.
We aim to update our site at least three times a week with meaty and contextualized analysis and (often) deep dives that answer the questions: How and why is downtown San Antonio changing? What’s the impact on nearby communities, especially ones vulnerable? Who’s benefitting and who’s not from the growth?
We exist to inform our readers. That is our only obligation. We do not produce our journalism for personal gain, for awards, nor for vanity.
Staff
Ben Olivo
Editor
210-421-3932
ben@saheron.com
Ben Olivo is editor and co-founder of the San Antonio Heron. In 1996, he began working in the San Antonio Express-News’ sports department, compiling high school football scores on Friday nights. Over the next 19 years, he moved about the newsroom — from business news to metro, from features to mySA.com. From 2008 to 2015, he wrote The Downtown Blog, an online page from which the Heron is largely based. He left the Express-News in 2016 to give politics a try, but politics chewed him up and spit him out after six months. At the beginning of 2017, he joined Folo Media, a journalism nonprofit backed by the H.E. Butt Family Foundation. Soon after joining Folo Media, he served as managing editor, overseeing a small newsroom of reporters. He left Folo Media in February 2018.
Olivo also serves as president of the board of directors.
Board of directors
Irene Abrego
Irene Abrego is a journalism instructor, and advisor of the student newspaper The Ranger, at San Antonio College. Abrego worked at the San Antonio Light and The New York Times from the late 1980s to 1995. Since then, she has taught at San Antonio where she has shaped the early careers of hundreds of regional and national journalists.
Cary Clack
Cary Clack, a San Antonio native, was a columnist for the San Antonio Express-News from 1995 to 2011, and his best pieces were spun into a book called “Clowns and Rats Scare Me” (Trinity University Press, 2009). After leaving the Express-News, he served as Communications Director for Joaquin Castro’s Congressional campaign, as District Director for Congressman Castro, and as Communications Director for Mayor Ivy Taylor. In 2017, Clack was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters. He currently works at Merced Housing Texas as a writer and community engagement liaison.