A Tour of the Miami Herald

When students registered for their on-line journalism class, the last thing on their mind was that they would have the opportunity to learn from one of the Miami Herald's very own, not to mention a private tour and class at the Miami Herald building.

The eight students who took advantage of stepping into the Miami Herald, were greeted  by Rick Hirsch, the managing editor of Multimedia and New Projects.

Sitting in one of the large conference rooms overlooking the Miami port, Hirsh began introducing the concept of the continuos news desk.  Nothing more than a few connecting tables surrounded by television and computer monitors, the continuos news desk provides the home-page with a ongoing updates from five to one in the morning.

Hirsch states that the busiest time on the home page is between 8 and 9 in the morning, as most arrive at their office desks and start their mornings to catch up with the most current news. 

When comparing the type of stories that are used both on-line and on the web, Hirsch describes the difficulty in not repeating yesterdays news, and if it has already been posted on the web to make sure that the printed story has some new spin or is a more detailed continuation of the previously posted story.

"What do we tell people, what did not already happen today?", Hirsch said.  "Producers replace earlier stories with more polished stories."