Jose Martinez covers transit and transportation news at NY1, which he joined in March 2013 after working as a newspaper reporter for 20 years.
In his time on the beat, he’s covered multiple train derailments, the decline in subway and bus service and major transit construction projects – including the opening of the Second Avenue Subway and the extension of the 7 train. He also hosted and co-produced NY1’s weekly "In Transit" show for two years, interviewing top transit officials, politicians, advocates, historians and even Broadway actors – all with a connection to the transit system.
Prior to joining NY1, he worked at both New York tabloids. He spent 12 years at the Daily News, mostly as a Manhattan courthouse reporter. He wrote front-page courthouse exclusives about the little black book of "Manhattan Madam" Kristin Davis, and dug up Leona Helmsley’s will that left $12 million to her dog, Trouble – and not a penny to two of her grandchildren. While at the News, he was dispatched to the Dominican Republic to find the 28-inch-tall sidekick of then-Mets pitcher Pedro Martinez and also to Florida to track down a one-time hitman for the Colombo crime family. He landed front-page interviews on both stories.
At the New York Post, Martinez covered the Brooklyn courthouse, where he reported on the sudden collapse of a high-profile case that resulted in two men winning their freedom, and the wacky trial of a man who dressed up as his dead mom in order to pocket her Social Security benefits.
He shared in multiple journalism awards at the News and the Post, and prior to that, at The Journal News in Westchester County. He started his career in 1993 at the St. Petersburg Times while he was in college.
Jose is a graduate of The University of Tampa and Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.