Here comes McClatchy by gimleteye

Let’s be blunt: it is time for a change and McClatchy made it.

Tom Fiedler is a great guy, a great political reporter and a great editorial writer. As executive editor Tom Fielder could have been a contender but for corporate culture that created its own particular ether in the Miami Herald executive suite.

Successive generations of Knight Ridder executives—remember, Alvah Chapman—paid fealty to the notion of an aloof and conservative approach to mediating energies as Miami was transformed by waves of immigration. Their credo—don’t rock the boat.

Of course, that didn't stop others--and it served their political purposes--to rock the Miami Herald boat as violently as possible. The targeting of David Lawrence comes to mind, and the intimidation it helped to spawn.

These are the waters Tom Fiedler has navigated, and they became especially choppy in later years under Ibarguen. As the energy of the paper was focused on boosting profits to placate Wall Street, the public began to drift away.

The 5 Minute Herald became the 5 Minute Herald.

The fixation on the bottom line provided more ammunition for the most conservative influences on the Herald, from the days of the Non-Group to the present. Don’t rock the boat, they said.

The problem with chasing wealth is the tendency to misplace financial success for wisdom.

Will McClatchy change the Herald? We hope so. We hope the Miami Herald will start busting the idiot heads responsible for defending a sprawling metropolis that becomes more unlivable, more congested, and less attractive for business and residents alike.

What McClatchy needs to understand is that Miami—for all its high rise glitz and glamour, for all its Art Basels and pop stars cavorting—is a small and parochial place. Up to now, the Miami Herald has fed into and been nourished by that parochialism.

We wish Tom Fiedler well. He got whip-sawed on the Defede controversy, when more powerful executives panicked and he could not reverse course. And on the chihuahuas, he was on the right side when executives panicked and reversed course.

Powerful journalism remains a vital need of the community, whether or not net profits are up from one quarter to the next. We’ll see what comes next.