The Miami Herald's new publisher, Alexandra Villoch, is moving the paper a bit closer towards irrelevancy

Last week, Miami Herald publisher Alexandra Villoch told a TV reporter, "Miami is the brand, and we cover Miami."

She also said this: "We can transform and make an impact in our community."

Here's a suggestion, Ms. Villoch: Instead of covering what you call a "brand," and "impacting" and "transforming" the community - whatever the hell that means - how about getting back to the basics of covering the news in this town, and along the way, tell a few compelling stories?

Yesterday when Miami-based Burger King announced it was planning to acquire Canadian fast food company Tim Hortons for $11 billion, the Herald posted a story on its website a few minutes before 8 in the morning. But the story was one supplied by a wire service.

At least one reader noticed that the Herald hadn't bothered to assign its own business writer to a huge story taking place in its backyard.

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How huge? The Burger King story made the front page of today's Wall Street Journal.

In this morning's paper the Herald was still using a wire service story that fails to mention that Burger King is a Miami-based company.

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The Herald not covering Burger King is the same as the Seattle Times not covering Boeing or Microsoft, or the Atlanta Journal-Constitution not covering Coca-Cola ... unthinkable.

Meanwhile on the Herald's front page today there is a story about the relocation of plants and animals affected by the expansion of the Panama Canal ... a story, I'm sure, that everyone in Miami is talking about.

Another big story the Herald hasn't bothered covering is the brazen armed robbery that occurred last Sunday at the Hialeah Racetrack and Casino.

A lone gunman walked into an office - unseen by anyone except the victim - and a minute later walked out with $100,000 in cash.





It used to be that something like a $100,000 robbery at a South Florida racetrack was considered front page news.

Miami News, Jan. 15, 1963. 

As you can see in the video above, Local 10's Christina Vazquez had no trouble putting together a story on the robbery with lots of detail, along with a bit of mystery and intrigue that sounds like something ripped from a movie script.

The best the Herald could do with the story was six sentences.

But cheer up. The Herald may no longer cover the news, but it still has a dance critic...and the always entertaining Fabiola Santiago.