Saturday, October 03, 2009

How to get your story on page one of The Herald


Miami Herald staffers are still talking about the curious placement of a story on page 1A of the Sept. 29 issue of the Herald.

A story that many newsroom staffers believe should have run in section B.

The story - with the eye-catching headline "Miami plans events to celebrate Abraham Lincoln's birth bicentennial" - was a peculiar selection for a newspaper struggling to retain print readership.

Random Pixels has learned how the story the story came to make it to page 1A.

It just so happens that the chairman of Miami's Lincoln Bicentennial celebration is none other than David Lawrence Jr., former Miami Herald publisher.

Lawrence resigned abruptly from the Herald in August 1998.

My sources say that Lawrence made a trip to the Herald newsroom to personally lobby current publisher David Landsberg to get the story placed on page one.

The sources used the word "pressured" and "relentless" to describe Lawrence's lobbying tactics.

Lawrence finally won the coveted page one real estate for his story after meetings with Landsberg, metro editor Jay Ducassi and executive editor Anders Gyllenhaal.

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