Anders Gyllenhaal, Herald Executive Editor, Must Go

Last week, several Miami Herald editors and reporters wrote a letter to the paper’s management asking it to stop focusing on delivering quick news and return to its roots in well-reported investigative journalism. We’re not sure if this is the answer. But we are sure of one thing: the quality of the paper has suffered a lot under the leadership of executive editor Anders Gyllenhaal. Perhaps he understands the Internet and its role in new journalism, but he is clearly having a hard time putting a plan into action.

Indeed the letter circulated internally and signed by most of the paper’s top news personnel is a clear sign of dysfunction. Why would such a group of bright people — including a half dozen Pulitzer Prizer winners — resort to assembling such a diatribe if the paper were working.

No, the place is broken — which is a shame because for years it was not only the best written, but the most interesting newspaper in America. Hell, last week the Sun-Sentinel beat out the Herald in the Green Eyeshade Awards, which honor the best investigative work in 11 Southeastern states.

Gyllenhaaal worked in Miami back in the ’80s, but he spent years away before returning several years ago. He doesn’t get the pulse of this city. Moreover, he’s aloof and not well liked in the newsroom. He is the wrong guy to run the paper at this time. So listen up McClatchy: It’s time to dump Anders.