The Miami Herald

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The Miami Herald is a daily newspaper owned by Knight Ridder. 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.

Contents

Overview

The newspaper employs 2,024 people in Miami and across several bureaus. These include Bogotá, Managua, Tallahassee, Washington, Vero Beach, Key West, and Hollywood (Florida). 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. Well-known columnists are Pulitzer-winning political commentator Leonard Pitts, Jr., humorist Dave Barry (who writes special articles of local interest specificially for the paper in addition to his nationally syndicated weekly article), and novelist Carl Hiaasen. Other columnists include Liz Balmaseda, Fred Grimm, Edwin Pope, Robert L. Steinback, and Ana Veciana-Suarez. Alberto Ibargüen is the chairman 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.

While the Miami Herald is commonly referred to as just The Herald, that name belongs to another newspaper, the Broward County-edition of the Miami paper published daily.

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 October 15, 1937, 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 August 19, 1960, 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 is 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 position is now held by the San Jose Mercury News.

On July 27, 2005, 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. 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 did cocaine with a transsexual prostitute. Teele at the time was being investigated for federal 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 refurbish neighborhoods in Miami. Teele was also found guilty in March of 2005 for threatening an undercover detective.

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. Examples of types of wishes could be: 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, or help to an elderly resident who would like to learn how to use a computer. Readers may make donations to specific causes or donate generally.

The Miami Herald also sponsors spelling bees in Miami-Dade County and Broward County; and area athletic awards. The Tropic section and its columnist Dave Barry also run a unique annual puzzlehunt in the Miami area called the Tropic Hunt.

Pulitzer Prizes

External links


Knight Ridder daily newspapers:
   Aberdeen American News | Akron Beacon Journal | Belleville News-Democrat | The Biloxi Sun Herald | The Bradenton Herald | Centre Daily Times | The Charlotte Observer | Columbus Ledger-Enquirer | Contra Costa Times | Duluth News Tribune | The Fort Wayne News-Sentinel | Grand Forks Herald | The Kansas City Star | Lexington Herald-Leader | The Macon Telegraph | The Miami Herald | The Monterey County Herald | The Myrtle Beach Sun News | el Nuevo Miami Herald | The Olathe News | Philadelphia Daily News | The Philadelphia Inquirer | Saint Paul Pioneer Press | The San Luis Obispo Tribune | San Jose Mercury News | Star-Telegram | The State | Tallahassee Democrat | The Wichita Eagle | Wilkes-Barre Times Leader
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