Alex Mena named Miami Herald’s executive editor. ‘We have so much more to accomplish’

Newsroom leader Alex Mena, who rose from answering phones as a teenager at the Miami Herald to become managing editor of the storied newsroom, on Monday was named executive editor of the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald.

Mena, 50, becomes the Miami Herald’s first immigrant executive editor. A Nicaraguan child who came across the Rio Grande on his father’s shoulders, Mena worked his way up to lead sports and metro news departments, el Nuevo Herald, and helped direct the Herald’s Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Surfside condo collapse.

In his new role, Mena will also oversee the executive editor of the Bradenton Herald as Florida Regional Editor for McClatchy, the parent company of the three Florida publications. Mena has been overseeing all three newsrooms in an interim role since February.

“Alex is the right leader to carry on the highest level of journalistic excellence that the Miami Herald has long been known for,” said Monica Richardson, vice president of local news for McClatchy. “He brings a passion and steadfast commitment to serving not only the diverse local communities of Miami but also readers throughout South Florida.”

Mena, who lives in Hialeah with his wife, Elany, cited the community’s support in his success. He is the first graduate of Miami Dade College and Florida International University to take the reins at the Herald.

“It was a long road. I’ve been a clerk to now executive editor,” Mena said. “It’s exciting and sometimes I’m out of words to say how I feel.”

Mena said his core priorities will include growing the Herald tradition of exceptional accountability journalism, and strengthening the news teams’ connections with our community.

“We have one of the best newsrooms in the country,” Mena said. “The Herald has done a lot of great work in the past, and we have so much more to accomplish.”

MENA’S JOURNEY TO MIAMI

Mena told some of his story in a column published in the Herald and el Nuevo in May.

Mena was born in Nicaragua and lived with his parents and was barely in elementary school when the Sandinistas took control of the country in the late-1970s. A few years later, Mena’s parents decided the family needed to escape to Miami. Mena was 11 at the time.

We were leaving everything we knew and loved behind, but we were going to a place where my parents said we could be free. We didn’t know the dangers that awaited us as we headed to Mexico, the only place we could fly to that bordered the United States, Mena wrote.

Mena called it “the mission of our lives.” The family encountered violence and obstacles, from mankind and nature alike, on the journey to a new life in Miami where the Menas had relatives.

The Rio Grande waters were high and dangerous. At least it looked that way through my 11-year-old eyes. I could not swim, and neither could my 60-year-old father. But he put me on his back, and we all went down into the river, inching closer and closer to the land of freedom, Mena wrote.

For me, Miami as a community was a godsend — and it still is. My family was able to find decent work, pay taxes and make a living. Our neighbors always lent a hand when we needed it. If it wasn’t for Miami Dade College Professor David Merves, who believed in me and gave my name to the sports editor as a possible clerk, I would probably not be where I am today.

MENA’S ROAD TO MIAMI HERALD

Monica Richardson, also a 30-plus-year veteran of the news business when she assumed leadership of the Herald as its first Black executive editor in December 2020, was named vice president of news for large markets for parent company McClatchy. Her move ushered Mena into position.

Mena had been the managing editor and held editing roles in the sports and metro departments as well as in design and production since taking that clerk job at 19 inside the Herald’s former waterfront downtown Miami office at One Herald Plaza in February 1993. His tenure with the Herald was interrupted only by a two-year stint as a copy editor and designer at the Sun Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale from 2001 to 2003.

Mena serves as president of the South Florida Chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and as vice president of the Florida Society of News Editors.

He is also a familiar face to many of South Florida’s brightest students as a long-time presenter at the Miami Herald’s Silver Knight Awards ceremony every spring.

“Alex’s personal history informs his professional story,” said Robyn Tomlin, McClatchy’s chief news officer. “His passion and persistence helped him rise through the ranks at the Herald, and now his vision for the future of the Herald and its mission to serve the South Florida community is what will make him an incredible leader in the years to come.”

Community response

Aida Levitan, board chair of U.S. Century Bank and founder of ArtesMiami, a group dedicated to supporting and promoting Hispanic artists and cultural organizations in South Florida, said she had been impressed by Mena’s integrity and willingness to listen to community concerns.

“He understands this community thoroughly,” she said. “He’s the symbol of what is great about immigration in this country — the wish and passion and drive to succeed in a free society. And all of those qualities are going to be very important to the Miami Herald in a period where so many newspapers are closing their doors.”

David Lawrence Jr., former Miami Herald publisher and chair of The Children’s Movement of Florida, said: “Alex Mena is as solid as they come. He will be superb — in the full heritage of the best executive editors for many Herald decades. Great values — journalistic and in every way.”

Mena’s mission

Mena said accountability journalism and growing the Heralds’ audience are among his top priorities.

“We are known for our investigative and local accountability reporting, and we will continue to focus on that. We will also do the stories that matter the most to our communities. As I have gone out to meet our community leaders and community members where they are over the past few months, I understand we need to do more to connect with them. And I will make it my mission to do that,” Mena said.

That mission, Richardson said, is critical in 2023.

“Most importantly, Alex is tasked with continuing to grow the Herald’s digital reach, an area of strategic focus for all McClatchy newsrooms across the country,” she said.

“I couldn’t be more pleased to see Alex take this leadership role and make it his own. He is truly a leader who brings people together and makes them want to work for him — and work with him. The Herald and the South Florida community will be a better place with Alex at the helm. It’s my hope that the community will support Alex and the Miami Herald both now and years to come,” Richardson said.

Honoring family

Mena credits his family for guiding him to his new role.

“My wife, Elany, has been incredible, inspiring me to keep pushing to reach for my goals and my dreams,” he said.

And he feels the guiding presence of his late parents who lived to see their son grow in their adopted community.

“My mother, especially, always said that I could accomplish anything I set my mind to. That all the possibilities were endless here,” Mena said. “It was all up to me. Hard work will always pay off.

“I just feel so lucky to have had two parents that worked so hard, sacrificed so much for me to be here, and to be in a position where really I can effect change.”