San Benito resident now heads print advertising efforts for Cameron County

HARLINGEN — Linda Medrano’s tidy office is peppered with photos of her family and neat piles of important reports and upcoming schedules and special sections.

It has a picture window that looks out over her advertising representatives hard at work. Often, they can be found hanging out in her office chatting about ideas and how to best find business solutions for their customers.

Now, Medrano, previously solely the advertising director for the Brownsville Herald, will oversee a much larger staff.

As of last week, she took over as the print advertising/sales director for all publications in Cameron County, including the Valley Morning Star, Brownsville Herald, Inspire magazine and the Spanish language newspapers all published by AIM Media Texas.

“I am excited for the opportunity and challenge to bring two teams together and make us stronger,” Medrano said. “There’s strength in numbers. There’s more ideas and input.”

The change comes on the heels of Chris Castillo’s move to become AIM Media’s new Assistant Sales Director of Digital AIM for the Rio Grande Valley. Castillo had been the advertising director for the Valley Morning Star since 2012.

Frank Escobedo, the publisher of the Valley Morning Star and Brownsville Herald, was pleased to announce the change that makes Medrano the leader of the print advertising group for both papers.

“Linda brings a wealth of experience to her new role and her many years of experience in media across the Rio Grande Valley will serve to enhance the print advertising offerings to our advertising clientele across Cameron and Willacy counties.

“I believe combined, we can offer more advertising solutions to support our local businesses,” Medrano said. “That’s what it’s all about — helping our advertisers be more successful in their business.”

The San Benito resident who was born and raised in Harlingen has been in the newspaper and publication business for 36 years.

She began her career at the Valley Morning Star in 1982. Then owned by Freedom Communications, Medrano held several positions during her 20 years in Harlingen. She then went to the Monitor under Freedom Communications and managed the outside sales staff and assistants as well as the Spanish products and niche products.

After five years, she headed away from Freedom to become the General Manager at the Valley Bargain Book, overseeing the operations and sales department.

In 2016, she returned to the daily newspapers here in the Valley as the advertising director of the Brownsville Herald and the Spanish language newspapers El Nuevo Heraldo and El Extra.

Medrano is married and has four grown children and five grandchildren. She and her husband recently became empty-nesters. She admits, she’s not sure what she’ll do with her free time.

But, she knows there may not be too much free time as she works toward her long and short-term goals as the head of advertising.