Local Journo Succeeds (3#) -

Amidst falling circulation and adverse demographic trends, The Miami Herald has appointed a new chief editor. She faces a daunting challenge.

Mindy Marques Gonzalez, 46, who lives in Davie, which is in Broward County, has been promoted to Executive Editor. Gonzalez worked her way up to the top from a lowly college intern position, just like in the storybooks when you are the right type.

So, what can we look forward to? This appointment probably marks a Sunsetting of sorts. Let's first look at how the numbers crunch.

Circulation figures / Daily / Sunday

Miami Herald ....... 151,612 (-7%) 214,891 (-10%)
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St Petersburg Times 239,684 (-0.2%) 377,235 (+2%)

When McClatchy bought The Miami Herald, they indicated that they wanted it in order to get a piece of the Tourist Industry, which they believed to be an evergreen. I suspect that we are beginning to experience the initial phase of The Long Goodbye for the English-language print edition, which will eventually be phased out except for a Weekend Entertainment issue aimed mainly at those tourists.

According to Random Pixels, another local blog, The Miami Herald is now planning to charge their print subscribers extra for the paper's Thanksgiving issue advertisements. Thus, it does look like they're trying any excuse they can to phase out their English-language readers.

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