Beginning of end for Miami Herald

I don't think that's the case at all. I thought it was the least arrogant newspaper I've been on -- the tone in news meetings was one of continual self-questioning and critical evaluation of the product to an extent that I've never seen elsewhere. Each day the sports budget contained a "competition report," and when our coverage fell short of other papers', we didn't gloss over that in-house. The intellectual honesty about our strengths and weaknesses was extraordinary.

I think almost all of us knew decades ago that the major problem was that an increasing number of Dade County residents wanted the news in something other than English. And, that while it was possible to win a good chunk of Broward County, the Herald could never dominate that market. Short of picking up the newspaper plant and moving it to Orlando or Naples, there was no longterm solution for an English-language newspaper in the city of Miami. The bottom fell out sooner than probably most of us expected, but we understood the inevitability of that market. So did corporate when it started a Spanish-language daily.

 

That's what I thought of. KC editors reading hyperlocal stories written in Miami? Wow.
Sounds like there will be a ton of job openings in KC. Or will it be one or two? Certainly the Kansas City Star desk can't do all this additional editing?

 

I've always thought the three South Florida papers do an amazing job on sports. Palm Beach does an amazing job with fewer resources and it's not a coincidence that it's one of the most raided staffs in the country.

The Dolphins beat has always been one of the most competitive sport beats in the country. How many other places have a top beat where news breaks consistently in all three papers?

 

Yep, it's long been a great area, and displayed the fruits of the competition. This is horrible.

 

Hell, we all know where the entire industry is headed. These and other moves are just steps along the way. The queen mother step will be when the paper in a one-paper city folds. Once that glass ceiling is finally shattered, look out below. The precedent will have been established, others will follow suit and it's everyone for him/her self.

 

And unless those papers turn into Web operations, one gut punch after another to participatory democracy

 

"Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories. And to render even them safe, their minds must be improved to a certain degree."
--Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.XIV, 1782. ME 2:20

 

i just got out of a mandatory meeting for our entire staff--everybody--at a small daily and the theme was the "state of the business." or, at least, in our own chain. the news was incredibly unbeat and optimistic, not to say there weren't some utterances of "that doesn't mean there won't be some down times" by the publisher. but honestly, we all left feeling pretty good or, at least, optimistic. we have around 25 papers in our chain and our own paper bought a new press two years with CASH. according to the publisher's speech, we have ZERO debt.
is this too much "pie in the sky" or what? at the same time, as i've expressed elsewhere on SJ, i feel small dailies can hang through all of this fairly well. our larger papers within an hour's drive have laid off a combined 35 and are due to send others packing in next two months. we've had one person laid off during all of this in the past year and it was a parttimer.

 

I understand moves like this (universal desk) is all about money so common sense means nothing. However ...

How does something like this work?
Does a designer do the work in Miami and the copy gets shipped (electronically) to KC to be edited, etc? Are all computer systems compatible? Other than the lack of "local knowledge" what are some of the other issues with having a Miami paper edited in Kansas City?

 

In the situations like that in which I've been involved, or observed close by, it eventually results in all products handled by the central desk becoming generic and, thus, boring.

 

Someone has to stand up for copy editors, and I'm not seeing it.

I'm seeing stupid fucking blogs on Web sites touting, marketing the fact that the mean, restrictive, pointless editors haven't touched the pisstine copy.

 

What I mean by Herald arrogance is that the powers that be thought the Herald was crown jewel of the K-R empire. And in some respects, it was. But as the other papers around it got stronger, the Herald never adapted.
I give the Herald credit for bringing out a second language paper. The first in the industry to do so and it spawned other areas such as San Antonio, to do like wise.
There was a time not so long ago when the Herald was considered among the best in the country. I'm just amazed at how fast it fell off the radar screen.