Saving newspaper history

The Miami New Times has a story asking what will become of The Miami Herald's iconic signage from the building. The Herald moved to a new facility out west and the former building is being demolished. Many of you probably have seen the building many times as you crossed the causeways between Miami and Miami Beach. It was right on the water, sold recently to developers who have big plans for the prime waterfront location. The Herald was in this building since 1963 and in 1973, they had The Miami News move in. The News was formerly in what is now called The Freedom Tower, can you imagine working for a newspaper in that building? I know a lady who did and she would tell me stories of what it was like, but anyway, back to The Herald building.

The old Miami News building.

When The News moved in for their joint operating agreement, the building had both "The Miami Herald" and "The Miami News" on the building. The Herald in red and The News in blue. On December 31, 1989, The News went out of business and the sign was taken down. Only "The Miami Herald" sign remained.

One day, I went to my bosses house at the time and he took me out to his backyard and there sprawled around the perimiter, resting on the hedges was THE MIAMI NEWS. All of the letters standing there in a row which were taken down from the Herald/News building. They must have been between 12 and 15 feet tall. He told me he found them at a junk yard, just thrown in like they were nothing. Luckily he rescued them. I don't know what he eventually did with them but I was glad to see them saved. We were in the newspapers business ourselves, which made it extra special to us at the time.

Today we would have taken so many photos of the sign in his backyard, probably we would have taken selfies in front of the letters, but unfortunately, I don't have a photographic record of that. Wish I did.

I hope someone saves "The Miami Herald" signage, there are two sets, one for each side of the building. Here you can see both of the newspapers when they were both in the same building. Those are the large blue The Miami News signs my boss Ron had in his backyard.