Miami Herald Undergoes Leadership Shakeup After LIBRE Scandal

After several scandals at the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald involving racist comments and inflammatory content, the newspaper has shuffled the top of its masthead.

As first reported by the Twitter page @BecauseMiami, El Nuevo Herald managing editor Nancy San Martin has resigned from her position, and Miami Herald publisher and executive editor Mindy Marques will no longer be publisher of the two entities. Marques will continue as executive editor for Miami and for McClatchy's Florida region, according to an internal email sent by the paper's parent company.

#BREAKING: In wake of LIBRE scandal, @elnuevoherald Managing Editor @nsanmartinhas has resigned and @MiamiHerald Publisher @MindyMarques has been demoted — she is no longer publisher but remains Miami Executive Editor and @McClatchy Florida Regional Editor h/t @ajhoward121 pic.twitter.com/RdMktJ7cHE

— Because Miami (@BecauseMiami) September 24, 2020

The email stated that Herald metro editor Jay Ducassi will take over as interim editor of El Nuevo Herald. A job posting will soon be made available for San Martin's position.

To fill the role of publisher, a position that handles the business aspects of managing the newspaper, McClatchy will hire a new president for the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald from outside the company. The email stated that an appointment will be announced soon but did not include information about who is being considered.

The operational changes come on the heels of a scandal involving a magazine insert called LIBRE that began being distributed inside print editions of El Nuevo Herald in January. The insert contained misinformation and racist and anti-Semitic remarks. A reader called in to complain after discovering a column in the September 11 issue of El Nuevo Herald that insulted Jews for supporting the Black Lives Matter movement and compared its supporters to German Nazis.

An internal investigation by the Miami Herald found there'd been no formal content review of the LIBRE insert before it was published, and it had run in El Nuevo for nine months without anyone calling attention to it.

After news of the insert emerged, Herald reporters were told that Marques would be taking some time away from the paper. A McClatchy spokesperson told New Times at the time that Marques remained the publisher and executive editor.

Readers and Miami Herald journalists alike were upset that racist and problematic content could be published for so long without any kind of review, and the union of Herald and El Nuevo employees publicly condemned the insert and asked for structural changes.

.@OneHeraldGuild condemns the anti-Semitic, racist and hateful content delivered to el Nuevo Herald subscribers’ doorsteps since January. Our team is upset it ever ran, and we support the investigation that continues to examine how this occurred unchecked for so long.

— One Herald Guild ???? (@OneHeraldGuild) September 23, 2020

New Times has reached out to McClatchy and Herald management about Marques and San Martin and to ask if the structural changes happened as a result of the LIBRE scandal. We will update this story with their response.