BY ANDRES VIGLUCCI

The top two editors of El Nuevo Herald are stepping down, prompting changes in newsroom leadership at the Spanish-language daily and its sister publication, The Miami Herald.

El Nuevo Herald executive editor Humberto Castelló announced his resignation after seven years in the job. His place will be taken by Manny Garcia, now The Miami Herald's senior editor for news.

Garcia's job overseeing the daily news operation will be taken over by the current features editor, Aminda Marqués Gonzalez. Garcia and Marqués Gonzalez are Miami Herald veterans who began their journalism careers as reporters in the newspaper's Neighbors sections.

El Nuevo Herald managing editor Tony Espetia, meanwhile, said he would retire in June after 40 years in journalism.

Publisher David Landsberg praised Castelló's and Espetia's contributions to the newspaper, considered among the best Spanish-language news outlets in the country.

''Under Humberto's leadership, El Nuevo grew its readership, broke international news on Cuba, Venezuela and Colombia, and was honored on numerous occasions for its accomplishments,'' Landsberg told El Nuevo Herald staffers assembled in their sixth-floor newsroom, adding: ``Humberto leaves this newspaper in an incredibly strong position to succeed in a challenging multimedia future, and for that we are extremely grateful.''

Landsberg and Garcia stressed that El Nuevo Herald will remain a ''fully independent'' publication editorially from The Miami Herald. Both are part of The Miami Herald Media Co., which is owned by The McClatchy Co.

At El Nuevo, Garcia said he hopes to refocus some news beats to expand coverage of local news and politics as a way to increase the newspaper's audience reach in print and online among South Florida's growing Hispanic population.

''This is a great opportunity. El Nuevo has a unique audience and is very well positioned to grow,'' said the Havana-born Garcia, who in 18 years as a Miami Herald editor and reporter on municipal beats and investigative projects has been closely involved in coverage that has won numerous awards, including two Pulitzer Prizes.

El Nuevo has a daily and Sunday print circulation of around 70,000 and 90,000, respectively. Its circulation has been holding relatively steady as The Miami Herald's -- now at around 190,000 daily and 275,000 Sunday -- has plunged. But the online reach of both has grown markedly, with a combined print and web audience reach around 1.5 million.

The leadership announcements come as the media company is cutting 19 percent of its workforce, reducing salaries and cutting costs in other places, part of efforts by McClatchy to cope with an industry trend of severe drops in advertising revenue.

Castelló and Espetia stressed their departures are entirely voluntary.

Castelló, addressing his staff in Spanish, said he resigned because he was unwilling to make the mandated cuts ''whether they are justified or not.'' He said a reduced staff would mean El Nuevo would likely have to share more stories from The Miami Herald.

''In the end, it's going to be something else,'' he said, urging the staff to do their utmost to provide its readers ``a unique newspaper designed for the community, which deserves that.''

Some journalists at El Nuevo Herald have been concerned that the newest job cuts at the newspaper, along with a previously announced move of its staff to The Miami Herald's fifth-floor newsroom, would compromise their ability to cover stories and make editorial decisions independenty of the far larger English-language publication. The Spanish-language paper began as a supplement to The Miami Herald, with its staff in the main newspaper's newsroom, before it was spun off as an editorially independent newspaper.

After a reporting and editing career that took her from The Miami Herald to People magazine as Miami bureau chief, Marqués Gonzalez returned to the newspaper in 2007 as multimedia editor to help launch Miami.com. She said her new job puts her on ''a mission'' to ensure the newspaper's continued viability and vitality.

''When I was 13 years old I decided I was going to work at The Miami Herald. We are just as vital now as we were then,'' she said. ``What we do is really important, and I want to be part of that.''