Gifts will fund coverage of faith, religion news at the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald
New philanthropic gifts will allow the Miami Herald and its Spanish-language partner publication, el Nuevo Herald, to reinstitute regular news coverage of religion and communities of faith in South Florida.
The gifts from local Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups and individuals total $200,000, and will support reporting and related public-engagement activities for two years, the Miami Herald / el Nuevo Herald — as the company is now known — said in an announcement Friday.
The newspapers will hire a reporter who will focus exclusively on covering the topic as a local news and features beat, company managers said. The Herald will exert full editorial control over the coverage.
“For many, faith is the underpinning of daily life, yet it receives relatively little attention beyond major religious holidays,” Alex Mena, interim executive editor of the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald, said in the statement. “This coverage will reflect the role religion plays in individual and community life, especially in our multicultural community.”
Reflecting the diverse roles religions play in South Florida, several donors contributed to the funding, including longtime local philanthropists Trish and Dan Bell, and COSMOS, the Coalition of South Florida Muslim Organizations.
“We are genuinely delighted at this opportunity to join with others of different faiths to help the Miami Herald expand its coverage of this critically important dimension of our community’s life and soul,” the Bells said in the statement.
The South Florida Muslim group coalition co-founder Shabbir Motorwala said that he believes supporting faith coverage is especially important “during this most divided time in our county, when Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and racism are on the rise.”
Like other news media companies, the Herald has turned to foundations and philanthropists to underwrite critical coverage at a time when drastic economic changes in the industry have led to sharp reductions in journalists in South Florida and across the rest of the country.
At the Herald and el Nuevo Herald, philanthropic gifts now support three investigative journalists, two climate journalists, and a multimedia arts journalist. Philanthropy also late last year supported a special project examining disinformation in local Spanish-language news media during the 2022 election season.
The nonprofit Miami Herald Impact Journalism Fund at the Miami Foundation works with financial sponsor Journalism Funding Partners to accept tax-deductible contributions to help expand local journalism.
The Herald formerly had full-time reporters who covered religion as a beat exclusively, or as a regular portion of their coverage responsibilities. The newspaper has continued covering faith and religion, but doesn’t have a full-time journalist assigned to the beat.
