Keynote NAREE Conference Conversation

Miami Herald Editor Monica Richardson Addresses Need for Newsroom Diversity

By Jeff Collins

Orange County Register

NAREE Board Chair

Monica Richardson was disturbed when she first previewed a press release about her selection as the Miami Herald’s new executive editor.

The headline said the Herald, winner of at least 22 Pulitzer Prizes, had just named its “first Black executive editor" in its 117-year history.

It seemed denigrating. She’s more than just “the first Black executive editor.”

“I have skills,” the 31-year news veteran said during a keynote conversation with Washington Post Real Estate Editor Dion Haynes at NAREE’s 2021 conference Dec. 8 in Miami.

But after consulting friends and colleagues, she relented, ultimately approving the headline.

That turned out to be a blessing in disguise. South Florida’s African American community responded enthusiastically, opening new doors and building new bridges between the newspaper and previously disaffected communities.

During her 30-minute appearance at NAREE, Richardson also explained what motivated her to respond to a racist email she received from a reader during her first year at the Herald.

Richardson could have discarded the 122-word, hate-filled email that ended with a misogynistic slur that also called her racist, and chalked it up to ignorance and anger.

But Richardson decided it wasn’t about just one man and just one email.

“It's bigger than that,” Richardson wrote in a commentary published July 15, 2021.

“I refuse to file this email away as one bad apple,” she wrote. “We are long past the time when women, Black people and anyone else who is marginalized should file it away in a drawer of despair.”

Asked at the NAREE conference why she wrote the column, Richardson said, “Hate cannot be solved by silence.”

Richardson also spoke about the need for increased diversity in America's newsrooms.

“We have to get to a point where we have different perspectives and experiences in the room,” she said.

That doesn’t just come from checking off a diversity, equity and inclusion box, Richardson said. It also comes from promotions as well as diverse sourcing and coverage.