Monday, June 16

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SoFlo: THE HERALD TIGHTENS ITS BELT -

The predominant language read in Miami these days is Spanish; most of its tourists come from Latin America. These unavoidable facts make it enormously difficult to successfully operate a daily English-language newspaper based in that marketplace.

For too long it seemed that Gary Pruitt was in deep denial about these factors, but today a long-overdue announcement disclosed that The Miami Herald would be undergoing a contraction.

Some of its functions will be outsourced to India, some consolidation via syndication should be expected, and there will be a diminished number of employees.

Their Spanish-language edition should continue to perform well in Miami.

But, I expect, the English-language edition may eventually move to another city in South Florida where more of its residents read English - Aventura, for example.

And, perhaps, they'll have to reduce their paper edition to weekends only or to a Fri-Sat-Sun schedule due to the sharply rising price of pulp, while posting the rest of the week's material online.

:: Miami Herald ::

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