The Daily Lobo has a new editor in chief.
Previously the newspaper's managing editor, Damian Garde began his career in journalism at 15 when he wrote for the Youth Express page of the Albuquerque Journal.
"I was good at writing, and I wanted to be paid for that," he said. "I didn't really have much of a thing for newspapers. But when I was working at the Journal, that slowly changed as I got into it, and the people that were there had a big influence on me."
Upon graduating high school, he went on to work for El Defensor Chieftain, a Socorro newspaper.
He takes pride in being a well-informed member of society.
"I read news every day, 20 billion times a day, with the help of Google Reader," he said. "I think that's why I like this business so much - it rewards attention to detail, and attention to detail is what I do."
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Former editor in chief Christopher Sanchez said he could not have picked a better replacement for himself.
"He's a walking encyclopedia," Sanchez said. "You can ask him about anything, and he'll usually have a well-thought-out answer."
Jim Fisher, business manager of Student Publications, said Garde seems to be playing with a full deck.
"He has a good sense of humor - that's always a plus," Fisher said. "The only negative I've found so far is he doesn't like soccer. We'll work on that."
Fisher said he hopes Garde will work on expanding news coverage, with more in-depth reporting on campus affairs.
"There's a lot of talent in the Lobo," Garde said. "We're going to try to pursue bigger projects, more investigative things. We've seen a lot of divisive stories, from the flag-tearing thing to the whole GPSA recall situation, and I think the Lobo has played an important role on campus in that we were there to report what was happening, unbiased."
Daily Lobo writing coach Jim Montalbano said Garde's writing stood out when he started at the Lobo's Culture section two years ago.
"He just had a voice, and he had a facility with the language that you don't always see in a young student," Montalbano said. "The Lobo has shown over the past four or five years that it has developed talent that moves through the system and eventually rises to the top.... Damian can continue that progress of the paper."
Aside from being a good writer, Garde has earned a reputation as a stable leader with a biting sense of humor.
"Damian is probably one of the funniest people I've ever met," culture editor Marcella Ortega said. "If he wasn't there, I couldn't imagine how the Lobo would be, because he practically makes everyone cry laughing every day. You can be having the worst day ever. Everything will be going wrong, but Damian will still manage to make any situation funny, and it's really good to have that. He doesn't freak out. It's really important that your leader keeps himself together, and Damian has a way of not taking everything so serious."
