The Miami Herald
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The Miami Herald is a daily newspaper owned by The McClatchy Company. It primarily serves the Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe counties in the U.S. state of Florida. As of 2004, The Herald has a daily readership of about one million readers with a daily circulation of about 300,000 (almost 450,000 on Sundays), mostly in South Florida, the Caribbean, and Latin America.
Overview
The newspaper employs 2,024 people in Miami and across several bureaus, including Bogotá, Managua, Tallahassee, Vero Beach, Key West, Broward County, and shared space in Knight-Ridder's Washington bureau. Its newsroom staff of about 450 includes 144 reporters, 69 editors, 69 copyeditors, 29 photographers, 23 graphic artists, 11 columnists, six critics, 48 editorial specialists, and 18 news assistants.The newspaper has been awarded 18 Pulitzer Prizes since beginning publication in 1903. Well-known columnists are Pulitzer-winning political commentator Leonard Pitts, Jr., humorist Dave Barry (who is on an indefinite sabbatical), and novelist Carl Hiaasen. Other columnists include Liz Balmaseda, Fred Grimm, Edwin Pope, Robert L. Steinback, and Ana Veciana-Suarez. Jesus Diaz is the publisher and Tom Fiedler is the executive editor.
The newspaper averages 88 pages daily and 212 pages Sunday. The Herald's coverage of Latin American and Hispanic affairs is widely considered among the best of U.S. newspapers.
History
The first edition was published September 15, 1903, as The Miami Evening Record. The newspaper was renamed The Miami Herald on December 1, 1910. It is South Florida’s oldest newspaper.The Herald came close to receivership but recovered in the 1930s.
On 1937-10-25, John S. Knight, son of a noted Ohio newspaperman, bought The Herald from Frank B. Shutts. Knight became editor and publisher and made his brother, James L. Knight, the business manager. The Herald had 383 employees.
Lee Hills arrived as city editor in September 1942. He later became The Herald's publisher and eventually chairman of Knight-Ridder Inc., a position he held until 1981.
An international edition for readers in the Caribbean and Latin America began 1946.
The Herald won its first Pulitzer Prize in 1950, for its reporting on Miami's organized crime. Its circulation was 176,000 daily and 204,000 on Sundays.
On 1960-08-19, construction began on the present Herald building on Biscayne Bay. Also on that day, Alvah H. Chapman, started work as James Knight’s assistant. Chapman was later promoted to Knight-Ridder chairman and chief executive officer. The Herald moved into its new building at One Herald Plaza without missing an edition on March 23-24, 1963.
An international edition for readers in Mexico started in 2002.
As of 2004, The Herald was the country's 24th-largest newspaper, with a Sunday circulation of 447,326, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
The Herald was once Knight Ridder's flagship paper, but that distinction was shifted to the San Jose Mercury News.
Controversies
Teele-DeFede Incident
On 2005-07-27, former Miami city commissioner Arthur Teele, Jr. walked into the main lobby of the Miami Herald headquarters, dropped off a package for columnist Jim DeFede, and told the security guard to tell his wife Stephanie he 'loved her' before pulling out a gun and committing suicide by one shot to the head. His suicide happened the day the Miami New Times, a weekly newspaper, published salacious details of Teele's alleged affairs, including allegations Teele had sex and used cocaine with a transsexual prostitute. At the time, Teele was being investigated by federal authorities for fraud and money laundering for allegedly taking $59,000 in kickbacks to help a businessman get millions of dollars in contracts at Miami International Airport. The IRS also had an ongoing investigation of Mr. Teele. Teele was suspended from his job in 2004 by Gov. Jeb Bush after being arrested for trying to run a police officer off the road. Teele was also charged in December 2004 with 10 counts of unlawful compensation on charges he took $135,000 from TLMC Inc., and promised they would be awarded lucrative contracts to redevelop neighborhoods in Miami. Teele was also found guilty in March of 2005 for threatening an undercover detective.Shortly before committing suicide, Teele had a telephone conversation with Jim DeFede. DeFede recorded this call without Teele's knowledge. Under Florida law, it is illegal to secretly tape a call when a speaker has an expectation of privacy. Following the shooting, DeFede admitted to Herald management that he taped the call and acknowledged that it was a mistake. Although the paper used quotes from the tape in its coverage, editor Tom Fiedler and publisher Jesus Diaz fired DeFede the next day. Fiedler argued that DeFede had violated the paper's code of ethics and was likely guilty of a felony. Many journalists and readers of the Herald disagreed with the decision to fire rather than suspend DeFede, arguing that it was made in haste and that the punishment was disproportionate to the offense. 528 journalists, including about 200 current and former Herald staffers, called on the Herald to reinstate DeFede, but the paper's management refused to back down. The state attorney's office later declined to file charges against the columnist, holding that the potential violation was "without a victim or a complainant."
Community Involvement
The Miami Herald sponsors several community involvement projects. The Silver Knight Awards have been held every spring since 1959. The awards are given in several categories to high school seniors who are nominated by faculty committees in their schools. Typical nominees will not only have excelled in their classroom studies but also served to better their community in some way. 18,000 students have been recognized since the program was started.
The Wish Book program lets people from the community who are suffering from hardships of varying types ask for help from the readers. Wishes have included asking for donations to buy medical equipment for a sick child, help with renovations to make a home wheelchair accessible, monetary donation to an impoverished family dealing with cancer treatments, and help to an elderly resident wanting to learn how to use a computer. Readers may make donations to specific causes or to the program at large.
The Miami Herald also co-sponsors spelling bees and athletic awards in South Florida. On those years when a co-sponsor cannot be found for the spelling bees, the Miami Herald has declined to foot the entire bill, and thus the spelling bees have been cancelled. The Tropic section and its columnist Dave Barry also run a unique annual puzzlehunt in the Miami area called the Tropic Hunt.
Pulitzer Prizes
- 2004—Commentary, Leonard Pitts, Jr., "for his fresh, vibrant columns that spoke, with both passion and compassion, to ordinary people on often divisive issues."
- 2001—Breaking news reporting, "for its coverage of the seizure of Elián González by federal agents."
- 1999—Investigative reporting, staff, "for its detailed reporting that revealed pervasive voter fraud in a city mayoral election that was subsequently overturned."
- 1996—Editorial cartooning, Jim Morin
- 1993—Meritorious public service, staff; Commentary, Liz Balmaseda, "for coverage that not only helped readers cope with Hurricane Andrew's devastation but also showed how lax zoning, inspection and building codes had contributed to the destruction."
- 1991—Local spot news, staff
- 1988—Commentary, Dave Barry, "for his consistently effective use of humor as a device for presenting fresh insights into serious concerns."
- 1988—Feature photography, Michel duCille, "for photographs portraying the decay and subsequent rehabilitation of a housing project overrun by the drug crack."
- 1987—National reporting, staff, "for its exclusive reporting and persistent coverage of the U.S.-Iran-Contra connection."
- 1986—Spot news photography, Michel duCille and Carol Guzy;
- 1986—General reporting, Edna Buchanan
- 1983—Editorial writing, the editorial board, " for its campaign against the detention of illegal Haitian immigrants by federal officials."
- 1981—International reporting, Shirley Christian, "for her dispatches from Central America."
- 1980—Feature writing, Madeleine Blais, "for 'Zepp's Last Stand.'"
- 1976—General reporting, Gene Miller
- 1967—Special reporting, Gene Miller
- 1951—Meritorious public service, staff, "for [its] crime reporting during the year."
See also
External links
- [Official Web site]
- [Detailed information about the Herald]
- [Audit Bureau of Circulations ranking]
- [Journalists for Jim DeFede petition]
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