Columnist Myriam Marquez to lead Miami Herald editorial board

[Mika]

Consistency is what the Herald is all about.

Columnist Myriam Marquez to lead Herald editorial board
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/story/1037713.html

Myriam Marquez, a Miami Herald Metro columnist, has been chosen to lead the newspaper's editorial board, becoming the first woman and the first Hispanic to be editorial page editor.

A former reporter, newsroom editor and columnist and editorial writer -- for the Orlando Sentinel -- she succeeds the retiring Joe Oglesby.

She'll phase into the job over the next month. ''I'm humbled by the great men who have come before me,'' said Marquez: Oglesby, Tom Fiedler, Jim Hampton and John Pennekamp.

''The editorial board sets the agenda for the community,'' she said, even in such dire times for newspapers. ``The blogs are great -- they offer quick snapshots of the prevailing winds -- but only the board can look at the big issues like the future of the Everglades and money for education and thoroughly research them.''

A registered independent, Marquez says she has voted for Republicans and Democrats. She'll lead a staff of three writers and political cartoonist Jim Morin, and will write a weekly column for the Metro front.

''This is a very passionate community and people should feel they can come here and have a say,'' said the Havana-born Marquez, who has written in English and Spanish for newspapers.

Unlike Oglesby, who reported only to publisher David Landsberg, Marquez also will report to Executive Editor Anders Gyllenhaal.

That ''partnership'' will help the board have a stronger online presence, she said.

Oglesby said he told Marquez: ``This is a great job. You have a lot of influence and you get your hands into real journalism every day.''

The move is one that Marquez ''has been headed to for her whole career,'' Gyllenhaal added. ``She listens, she reports deeply and she has something to say . . . She is a Miami story in many ways.''

Marquez's family fled to Miami in the fall of 1959.

She attended Ada Merritt and Sts. Peter & Paul elementary schools and Citrus Grove Junior High before becoming ''a proud Stingaree'' at Miami Senior High.

She earned a bachelor's degree in journalism with a minor in political science from the University of Maryland in 1983, then launched her journalism career at Datapolitix UPI in Washington, D.C., covering Congress.

She joined the Orlando Sentinel as an editorial writer in 1987 and came to The Miami Herald in 2005 as a Metro desk editor.

''She has just the right mix of experience for the job,'' Landsberg said. ``The sum of all that experience will make her really effective. . . She has progressive ideas about increasing readership. She's very smart and attuned to global issues.''

He argued that despite industry shrinkage that has led some newspapers to abolish their editorial boards, ``they're really relevant still. We believe opinion is locally acquired content and it helps differentiate us.''

Marquez is married to Tony Pipitone, an investigative reporter for WKMG in Orlando. They have two sons. Joe, 22, recently graduated from Florida State University and Michael, 19, attends the University of Florida.

"She has progressive ideas about increasing readership. She's very smart and attuned to global issues.'' :rofl:

[rabs]

1. Was wondering if MH's hardline editorial position on Cuba would ease up

but it appears it will not, if one can judge by this recent column by MM.

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Absent Cuba will have its presence felt at Trinidad summit
Myriam Marquez, Miami Herald

April 17th, 2009 - Cuba's not invited to the big party in Trinidad and Tobago, but it will crash it anyway.

It'll be the pesky ghost at the table, pushing, shoving and booing -- all in an effort to derail President Barack Obama's first foray Friday into Latin America's often messy love-hate relationship with the United States.

With the help of Hugo, Lula, Evo, Daniel, Michelle, Cristina and many other Latin American presidents who learned how to play leftie politics -- and win -- virtually at Fidel Castro's knee, the ghost is demanding a clean slate and collective amnesia.

Forget 50 years of an atrocious human-rights record. Never mind that there are no property rights, labor unions or free speech.

Forget multiparty elections, the ghost thunders, it's tiny Cuba vs. the bad Imperialist Goliath.

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http://www.cubastudygroup.org/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=5211&Month=4&Year=2009