Published Friday, April 6, 2001
Hot topics, good coverage lands Miami Herald editor E&P honor
BY JASON BEGAY
ASNE Reporter
If you ask the staff at Editor & Publisher magazine why Martin Baron is Editor of the Year 2001, they might say it’s because he guided The Miami Herald through the country’s two most high-profile news stories of the year.
If you ask Mr. Baron, he may laugh: “One could argue that I was in the right place at the right time – or in the wrong place at the right time.”
Either way, the executive editor of The Miami Herald shepherded his newsroom staff of approximately 400 through full coverage of the Elian Gonzalez story and the Florida presidential vote recount, or “the story that would never end” and “the election that would never end,” as Mr. Baron described them.
The Florida vote recount story is still a hot topic across the country. Mr. Baron spent most of this week fielding questions from national media in response to an analysis sponsored by the Herald, Knight Ridder Inc. and USA Today that indicated George W. Bush would have still been the victor in the presidential election had a manual recount of ballots occurred.
“There were a lot of people who were waiting on the results of a statewide ballot recount,” said Mr. Baron, who is attending this year’s ASNE convention. “Certainly, we knew all along there was enormous interest.”
When pressed for a reaction to being named Editor of the Year, he gave credit where it was due: “It’s a team effort,” Mr. Baron said. “It requires a lot of people to do good work. I don’t want to take the credit for all the good work that a lot of people have done.”
