Thomas Manglona II, a young leader in journalism in Micronesia
‘I wanted to cover my community,’ the Rota native said
Thomas Manglona II is only 26 years old but he’s had a byline since before he was a teenager, and he’s been covering the Northern Mariana Islands for the better part of the last decade.
“I really started my writing, reporting when I was in middle school. I started my own blog. It was called Luta På’go, which means Rota Today,” Thomas told The Husk. “I started it because I just had an interest in covering current events.”
Thomas recalled mornings as a kid watching CNN on TV. “It felt like a window to the world. And I always just wondered why I never saw Rota in the news. And so I was like, oh, well, I can do something about it.”
Armed with a $10 audio recorder, Thomas wrote, edited and published his articles. He’d take his own photos to go along with each piece for Luta På’go, he recalled.
“Not much has changed,” Thomas quipped.
In his current role as chief regional correspondent for award-winning KUAM News, Thomas is essentially a one-man newsroom providing round-the-clock coverage of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
“I'm the videographer. I'm the editor. I'm the social media manager for KUAM CNMI,” Thomas said. “I receive some technical support from the team on Guam as well. But for the most part, it's just me out here, really, chasing stories. People ask me where my office is, … it’s the car.”
It’s clear that the same enterprising attitude that prompted him to launch Luta På’go, in which he covered parent-teacher association meetings and interviewed public officials as a middle-schooler, has stayed with him throughout his career.
In addition to his work with KUAM, Thomas teaches at the Northern Marianas College, he’s the president of the CNMI Society of Professional Journalists, and he freelances for other news outlets that cover the Pacific, keeping the broader Oceania region informed about the ongoings of the Marianas. Recently, Thomas was also named as one of a select few Obama Foundation Asia-Pacific Leaders.
Thomas joked that it’s coffee that allows him to accomplish so much. But to anyone paying attention, it’s evident that Thomas is a reporting powerhouse, and he inherently operates at a high level. Coffee might help, but there’s something unteachable, something innate that’s propelled him to do so well.
Lifelong learning
As part of the 2024-2025 Obama Foundation cohort, Thomas said he’s looking forward to honing his leadership skills.
The foundation is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization. The foundation describes its leadership program as one designed to connect and inspire emerging leaders across different sectors of society and empower them to make positive and lasting change in their communities. Thomas applied after a former CNMI Obama Foundation Asia-Pacific leader encouraged him.
“I think, moving back home, one of the reasons why, for example, I restarted SPJ, is because sometimes there can be a lack of opportunities for professional development. So every year I try to do a fellowship or a program just to grow. I believe in lifelong learning,” Thomas said.
Thomas graduated from Stanford in 2021, earning his master’s degree in journalism after earning a bachelor’s degree in media studies from the University of California, Berkeley. He was a Gates Millenium scholar and earned multiple scholarships. In 2022, he was a Rosalynn Carter journalism fellow, and in 2021 he earned the Nia Tero Storytelling Fellowship for Indigenous Pacific Islander storytelling.
Since those early days of writing for Luta På’go, Thomas locked in on journalism and welcomed the journey, wherever it would take him. He moved from Rota to Saipan for high school. Then he moved from Saipan to California for college. After he graduated from Stanford, he moved to New York and worked for ABC News. From Luta På’go to ABC News – it’s a one-of-a-kind career trajectory that took him far from the islands.
But the Marianas beckoned.
‘I wanted to cover my community’
The stories he covered for one of the largest news organizations in the world were important, but it wasn’t quite the same.
He got his start in local journalism, covering news that had consequences for his neighborhood, his neighbors, his family. He launched his blog all those years ago because he wanted to see Rota in the news. When he found himself on the other side of the television reporting in New York, he couldn’t help but think back to what started it all for him.
“It just wasn't for me. I didn't feel connected to the stories I was working on,” he said. “Not to say that the work isn't important. I’m not trashing national news or that experience. I'm grateful for the people who were there, who mentored me, and I learned so much at that level of news. It's so different, but I didn't feel connected. That's why I came home.”
Thomas grappled with the expectations of his family as some questioned why he’d want to leave New York. Ultimately, Thomas returned home.
“I came home because I need to feel connected. Living in the communities you cover is important. We can't just cover them from our offices. We have to live it, and we have to feel the consequences,” he said. “We have to feel the hardship, not just all the success. So I moved home because I wanted to cover my community. And frankly, there aren't a lot of Chamorro or Carolinian journalists right now in our industry. And even if we are technically a minority in terms of numbers now per the last census, I think it's still important that our Indigenous people do tell our stories.”
“Living in the communities you cover is important. We can't just cover them from our offices. We have to live it, and we have to feel the consequences.”
Thomas has been on the ground reporting out of the Marianas for years now.
“I try to make an effort, when possible, to cover Rota and Tinian even if virtually just to get their voices and perspectives too,” he said.
He was among the gaggle of journalists that covered Julian Assange’s guilty plea in the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands in June. He covered the recent Festival of the Pacific Arts and Culture. He journeyed from Saipan to Kansas to track the historic release of the sihek into the wild on Palmyra Atoll. And Thomas has also covered board meetings and legislative sessions and the economy and local elections – the events that directly impact people’s day-to-day lives.
It’s work that requires one to be ready for anything at any time.
Thomas said he couldn’t do it without the support of loved ones.
“My partner, she's a former journalist, and she's just also so supportive. … When you have to be away for so long, and sometimes you have to cancel dinner because something came up or just move around our life for a story sometimes. So I definitely want to thank her for that,” Thomas said. His family too has always encouraged and supported him. He recalled his aunt and uncle, when Thomas was a kid before he could drive, shuttling him to different places around Saipan so he could cover events.
Now that he’s shuttling himself around the island for coverage, Thomas is glad he heeded the advice of a news director he worked for during an internship in San Francisco. It’s advice he thinks applies to all professions.
“The news director told me something that really lasted, which was: Do every job you can in the newsroom. And whether or not you're a journalist, I think that could apply to any office you're in. Do the printing job. Do the camera job. Do the editing job. Do the producing job. Do the scheduling job. Because you not only get to learn the ins and outs of your workplace, but you also appreciate the team that you have around you,” he said.
“I am kind of a one-man band here, but I wouldn't be able to do it with all the support from my colleagues on Guam either,” he added.
Thomas’ instincts as a kid watching CNN and yearning for more stories of Rota were just the beginning of what has since become a life of telling the stories of his community. His decision to return home and do this work turned out to be a blessing. To others in the diaspora thinking of coming back to the islands, Thomas encourages them to do so.
“I know it can feel like you're uprooting yourself, but remember that what happens after that is that you're going to root yourself again,” he said. “Maybe coming home is really complicated and hurtful, maybe, depending on your situation. But for the most part, just generally, I just want to encourage more and more folks to give it more thought and come home, because we need more of us here.”
In the coming weeks, Thomas said he’s focused on the upcoming elections, which is always a busy time for newsrooms. He continues to chase stories and share the important issues of his people in the way that he has for just about his entire life.
“I'm just focused on doing the best job I can,” he said.
Support Thomas
Follow his reporting on Facebook, on X @thomasreporting, and on Instagram @thomasreporting.
So proud of you!
Awww, that's my sister behind Thomas photographing our Chamorro dance performance in Waikiki for FestPac in June 2024 ☺️