CSJ-10-0026.0 This case is about the management challenges which erupted after the Miami Herald (TMH) published a story naming three reporters at its sister publication, El Nuevo Herald (ENH), as among a group of journalists accepting money from the US government. The publisher (of both papers) decided to fire the named ENH journalists on the eve of the story’s publication on September 8, 2006. The story and the dismissals prompted outrage among both journalists at the two papers, and the Cuban-American community in Miami. Executives at the California-based McClatchy media company, which owned both papers, realized that they would have to step in to calm the turmoil, with both a message to subscribers and measures to address the pervasive hostility between the two newsrooms. Nearly a month after the story ran, Vice President-News Howard Weaver and his colleagues pondered their options.

Faculty can use this complex case to discuss strategic management at both an editorial and ownership level. Students will gain understanding of the relationship between newspaper owners, their publishers, and their editors. The case also raises for discussion ethnic issues in the newsroom. How should managers approach ethnic diversity in a newsroom if that becomes a tripwire for anger and hostility? Ask students to consider different newsroom cultures, and the relationship that media outlets have to one another and the broader community. The case can also be used to discuss possible conflicts of interest in journalism; or journalistic ethics and competition.

Use this case in a course about ethnicity in the newsroom; journalism ethics; media management; media conglomeration and competition.