MarketInk: Retired newsman expected a relaxing 2025 — then the SD Press Club called

The year 2025 was supposed to be a quiet year of retirement for longtime San Diego TV journalist Steve Fiorina. Then came the San Diego Press Club.

The veteran television news reporter said that the organization approached him about serving on the board of directors.

The San Diego Press Club isn’t new territory for him, whowever. “I’ve always been a big Press Club supporter,” said Fiorina, who joined the organization shortly after his arrival at KGTV in 1984. Over the years, he served multiple terms as a board member. In 2022, he was honored with the Press Club’s Harold Keen Award for Excellence in Journalism.

Then, in July 2025, Fiorina was invited to return to the Press Club board. However, there was a board position to fill after Nicole Vargas stepped down as board president due to personal commitments. With gratitude and excitement, board members asked Fiorina to serve as Press Club president — and he agreed.

“We have a passionate group of board members, and I’m proud to serve with them,” Fiorina said. “I’m proud of the Press Club’s recognition of outstanding achievements by our colleagues but also how we encourage growth with student awards and scholarships.”

In 2025, Fiorina said he did get to enjoy time with his wife Barbara, son Nic and daughter Alex, as well as grandchildren Nolan and Tatum.

“My family fills my heart every time I see them, talk to them or think of them,” Fiorina told Times of San Diego. “I’m proud and grateful. We raised a wonderful son and daughter. They inspire me with their enthusiastic personalities and thirst for knowledge. We love living in San Diego and Southern California. Our lives are blessed.”

Fiorina was a TV news reporter for 35 years on KGTV-TV Channel 10, followed by five years at KFMB-TV Channel 8. He retired from KGTV at the end of 2018, and left KFMB in 2024. His broadcasting career spanned 55 years with 40 years in San Diego.

Steve is proud of wife Barbara’s career with several nonprofits, including Support The Enlisted Project, American Red Cross, YWCA and Meals-on-Wheels. Steve said he also volunteers with STEP, Scripps Ranch Old Pros and Scripps Ranch Symphony.

In his journalist career, Fiorina reported on every major breaking story, including earthquakes, fires, murder trials, executions, presidential visits and more.

“I covered many tragedies, including the massacre at a McDonald’s restaurant in San Yisdro, the kidnap-murder of Danielle van Dam, the murders of Chelsea King, Stephanie Crowe, Dan and Linda Broderick, Amber DuBois and Cara Knott, and the mysteries of Jahi Turner disappearance and Rebecca Zahau death,” Fiorina said.

“But there were wonderful experiences, too. The many years at the Rady Children’s Hospital Celebration of Champions, the Padres in the World Series, the Super Bowls in San Diego and Comic-Con. I once accompanied a group of medical missionaries to Honduras and reported on the war zone at the border with Nicaragua. I’ve been airlifted into a helicopter and led down into a smuggling tunnel from Mexico to the U. S., and into a gold mine.”

Fiorina began his broadcasting career in radio and TV in Illinois (after briefly pursuing an aeronautical engineering degree because he was good at math and science). He attended disc jockey trade school in Kansas City, then worked on the air at a Cairo, Ill. radio station. He earned a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

Fiorina worked in radio news in Ottawa, Ill., then Peoria, Ill., followed by television news roles in Peoria and in Toledo, Ohio, before making his way to San Diego for the rest of his career.

“I’ve been an eyewitness to history,” Fiorina said about his TV news career. “I loved covering major events, as well as minor ones. I’ve won a few awards but every single one of them was a team effort. Everything was a collaboration from beginning to end with my work family. I worked with people who were imaginative, creative, dedicated and kind.”

We lost Manny Cruz, MarketInk column founder, this year

Manny Cruz, founder of the MarketInk column you are now reading, is remembered as one of San Diego’s influential news media figures who died this year.

Cruz, a longtime San Diego journalist, passed away at his home in Kimball, Mich., on Oct. 30.

He had turned 83 on June 29. Six years previously, he had moved from San Diego to be near his son Matthew.

His San Diego journalism career began in 1970 at the Daily Californian newspaper, where he served as reporter and editor until 1990.

From April 1990 to February 2001, he served as special sections editor and wire editor at the San Diego Daily Transcript.

While at the Transcript, he founded the MarketInk column. (In 2013, I began writing MarketInk for the Transcript before the paper closed in September 2015; Times of San Diego has published the column since October 2015.)

After leaving the Transcript in February 2001, Cruz was named editor of the Chula Vista Star-News, a weekly newspaper. He remained at the Star-News until March 2002, when he joined Antique & Collectables Magazine as editor.

In June 2004, he was named managing editor of San Diego Metropolitan Magazine and editor of the North Park News. He also edited the Daily Business Report.

Cruz said he officially retired as of February 2025.

“Over the years, I’ve gotten a lot of pleasure from editing SD Metro Magazine and the magazine’s Daily Business Report, which has grown to over 4,000 subscribers,” he said in his retirement statement.

“Along the way I’ve learned quite a bit about San Diego County’s business community and the educational institutions that feed into it, and have met many of the men and women who drive the local economy. Some of my best friends are people who work in the public relations and advertising fields who have helped me in my career. I surely will miss them. Going forward I intend to enjoy friends and family, but I have absolutely no intention of writing a memoir. Like Ernest Hemingway once said: `Retirement is the ugliest word in the language.’”

Cruz suffered a heart attack in August 2024. He returned to work in October 2024, and wrote at the time in an email: “I have been living a double life, as a heart attack sufferer and survivor. During the darkest days of my recuperation, I seriously thought of giving up my work with the Daily Business Report, a job that I thoroughly enjoyed.

“Tough encouragement from my boss, Bob Page, as well as the love from my sisters and son brought me back. Encouragement helped me find a spark of hope when I felt lost or overwhelmed. I needed a push to keep moving forward. I’m feeling better now, watching my health and looking forward to life with my pup, Miles, and cheering on the next football game of my adopted city. Go Lions!”

At Cruz’s passing, Bob and Rebeca Page of SD Metro released the following joint statement: “Manny loved the news business. He often said he never could have imagined doing anything else. He could be a demanding editor, and the publications he worked for were better because of it. His contributions to our magazine were many. A good friend has passed.”

Cruz was a veteran having served in the U.S. Air Force from 1960 to 1964 as a C-130 aircraft mechanic in 7406 Squadron based in Frankfurt, Germany.

He earned an associate degree from San Diego City College and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from San Diego State University. He was a longtime member of the San Diego Press Club. He won many writing awards from the Press Club, California Newspaper Publishers Association and Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Chapter.

He is survived by daughter Cindy Cruz Legg of Huntington, WV., son Matthew Cruz of Kimball, MI., six grandchildren, and sisters Irene Clark and Mary Young, both of San Diego.

U.S. political advertising in 2026: a record $10.8 billion

Political ad spending for the 2026 election cycle is projected to reach a staggering $10.84 billion, making it the most expensive midterm election in U.S. history, according to ad analytics platform AdImpact.

While this total reflects a slight 4% decrease from the record-setting 2024 cycle, when $11.2 billion was spent, it represents a significant 21% increase over the previous 2022 midterm cycle, when $8.9 billion was spent (a whopping $3.2 billion was spent solely in 2024 on the U.S. presidential race).

The increase is driven by a competitive battle for control of Congress, as congressional races are expected to generate record-setting ad spending, said AdImpact’s report.

The AdImpact report also said broadcast television will continue to dominate political media buys, accounting for 49% of all ad dollars. However, streaming TV is expected to be the fastest-growing category with $2.48 billion expected to be invested.

Meanwhile, radio is projected to see a decline, capturing just 3% of the total spend, with estimated political ad revenue dropping to $280 million, which is down from $330 million in 2024 and $310 million in 2022.

At the state level, California is expected to lead the nation in political ad spending, with projections topping $1.1 billion. Other states likely to see major investments include Georgia, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, and Texas, each anticipated to attract $500 million or more. These states feature either multiple high-stakes statewide races or hotly contested House districts, making them key battlegrounds in the 2026 cycle.

Senate races are expected to generate $2 billion in ad spending, slightly surpassing 2024 levels and marking a 21% increase from 2022.

House spending is projected to reach a record $2.2 billion, making it the first cycle where House race spending exceeds $2 billion. That figure represents a 27% jump from 2024 and a 40% surge over 2022. AdImpact attributes this rise to Republicans’ efforts to maintain their majority, driving aggressive fundraising and advertising efforts.

Brookings Institution, a nonprofit think tank, notes the president’s party almost always loses ground in midterm House elections, as has happened in 20 of the past 22 midterm elections stretching back to 1938. Recent voter registration numbers have given Republicans optimism, but nothing is a given.

Rick Griffin is a San Diego-based public relations and marketing consultant. His MarketInk column appears weekly on Mondays in Times of San Diego.