Manny Garcia Dean Candidate #4 School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Thursday, September 1, 2011
10:30-11:30am Town Hall meeting for faculty, staff and students to get to know the candidate – Provost Wartzok will moderate this session
Location:
Biscayne Bay Campus: WUC 157
Modesto Maidique Campus: GL 150 (via video conference)
For questions please contact: Gitta Montoto, Office of the Provost Tel: 305-348-2151, Cell: 786-232-1084
Updated 7/29/2011 9:04 AM
Manny Garcia 1119 Hickory Way * Weston, FL 33327 * 305-934-1241 [email protected]
Professional Experience: Executive Editor/General Manager, El Nuevo Herald April 2009-Present Job resembles more publisher/editor. Run web and print operations for the most influential Spanish-language newspaper in the hemisphere. Manage multi-million dollar budget. Restructured newsroom of 60 fulltime journalists and 100-plus freelancers to meet online/print goals. Created strategic alliances to boost coverage. Edit – in two languages - investigative projects. On my watch, our Spanish-language web/print reach has become the fastest in the U.S. Home-delivery circulation growing for first time since 2006. Created business plans, producing more than $250K in new revenue. Pulitzer finalist with The Miami Herald, a first for Spanish publication. Report to the Publisher.
Senior News Editor, The Miami Herald January 2008-April 2009 Oversaw daily web and print operations, news bureaus, Sports and investigations. Managed $10 million-plus budget and a staff of 250-plus employees. Restructured news operations to be more fluid. Managed staff development and hiring. Drafted partnership contract with St. Pete Times. Rebuilt trust with community. Report to Executive Editor.
Assistant Managing Editor/News, The Miami Herald March 2005-January 2008 Oversaw daily news and online operations for Metro and State and ran Investigative Team. Hired a team of editors and reporters. Restructured coverage teams to better serve readers on all platforms. Managed multi-million dollar budget and staff of more than 130 journalists. Oversaw coverage that won Pulitzer Prize.
Special Projects Editor, The Miami Herald January 2002-March 2005 Ran Investigative coverage as player-coach. Managed multiple investigative projects, locally and nationally, including the Space Shuttle Explosion, which was a Pulitzer finalist. Prepared and led in-house training for reporters. Recruited staffers and interns.
Assistant City Editor, Miami Herald June 2000-January 2002 Oversaw courts and cops team, assigning daily, enterprise and investigative reporting. Led our 911 coverage, which focused on terrorists who trained in South Florida. Led our Anthrax coverage, and continued to train, recruit and hire reporters and interns.
Beat and Investigative reporter September 1990 to June 2000 Watched a killer executed in Florida’s electric chair to uncovering a coup d’état at Miami City Hall. My reports helped jail public officials and change Florida law. Key reporter on 2 Pulitzer-Prize entries, for Miami Voter Fraud Scandal and the Elian Gonzalez raid.
-2- Leadership:
President/Investigative Reporters & Editors, Columbia Missouri. June 2011-present Member since 1997. IRE board member since 2004. Mentor to young journalists. Travel nationally and internationally teaching investigative reporting to journalists and students. Raised more than $50,000 for endowment and conferences.
McClatchy Investigative Task Force, Sacramento CA Present Co-chairing company-wide initiative to re-invigorate investigative reporting across the entire company. Leading task force to prepare guidelines, budgets, training, best-practices and present a report on how to create a culture of watchdog reporting in every newsroom.
Executive Mentorship program 2009-Present A Publisher-driven directive to pair up executives with young leaders and help them develop. My mentees and I develop each year a plan to grow the business, such as call center discussions to keep readers from dropping the newspaper.
Visiting journalism professor, different schools and conferences 1997-Present Guest lecturer/instructor on investigative reporting, beat coverage and the psychology of developing sources. Taught at Columbia, Washington & Lee, Liberty, Bethel and Florida International University and in Argentina. Recruit students for internships.
Knight Ridder Executive Leadership Program, San Jose CA. 2005-2006 Completed a two-year program designated to identify future publishers and executive editors. One chosen from hundreds of editors company-wide to be part of the program, which taught business literacy, leadership, ethical decision-making, innovation skills.
Poynter Institute, Ethics Fellow, St. Petersburg FL. 2004-2005 Part of a two-year program where fellows practice ethical standards to better lead the newsroom and industry. Hand-picked by my executive editor to attend.
Other activities:
Pulitzer Judge, Columbia University New York 2008-2009 Judged Pulitzer in the Investigative reporting and Public Service. Vetted nearly 100 entries yearly to determine the top three finalists.
COLPIN conference Buenos Aires Argentina 2010-Present Trainer and panelists, teaching investigative reporting to journalists in Latin America.
-3- Awards and recognitions:
Pulitzer Prize, investigative reporting, 1999 Key writer and reporter on breaking investigation that uncovered widespread voter fraud in the Miami mayoral election. The probe overturned the election results, changed Florida law and led to more than 56 arrests.
Pulitzer Prize, breaking news 2001 Primary writer and anchor on the federal raid that removed Elian Gonzalez from his relatives’ Miami home and returned him to his father in Cuba. Anchored the story before dawn and reported and wrote through the entire news cycle, and into the next day.
Goldsmith Prize for investigative reporting 1999 Awarded the Harvard University Prize for work on the Miami voter fraud scandal.
Investigative Reporters and Editor Award 2006 Honored for project that uncovered how criminals were repeatedly given a withhold of adjudication following arrests, meaning that rapist, child molesters, killers, and career criminals walked out of court without convictions on their records. Project changed Florida law.
National Association of Hispanic Journalists 2006 For Justice Withheld Project
Pulitzer Prize finalists, breaking news 2003 Key writer and reporter on investigation that uncovered why the space shuttle exploded. The reporting found that shuttle managers and engineers had long known that there was a problem with insulating foam detaching from the fuel tanks and striking the shuttle.
McCandlish Philips Chair in Reporting, World Journalism Institute 2009
Memberships: Investigative Reporters and Editors National Association of Hispanic Journalists American Society of Newspaper Editors
Education:
Florida International University, Bachelor of Science in Communications, 1990
Skills: Bilingual, fluent English and Spanish July 14, 2011
Dear Julie,
I want to tell you a bit about myself: I was born in Cuba and raised in Miami. My family left it all to give me a shot at the American Dream, and I am living that dream. Currently I am Executive Editor/General Manager of El Nuevo Herald. I took the job two years ago when the previous editor retired. Many colleagues said I was insane because after 18 years at The Miami Herald, I had risen to Senior News Editor – the Number Two post at the newspaper. But I knew I wanted to run my own newsroom. I made the right decision: We are one of the few newspapers that has grown year over year home delivery circulation; our reach online and print is tops for Spanish news organizations and among the highest when you include English and Spanish press. I have built up our web, video and radio presence. Our watchdog reporting has exploded. This year we were named a Pulitzer finalist with The Miami Herald – a first for a Spanish-language newsroom. In December, our publisher also named me GM, which I welcomed. I have helped implement initiatives that have produced more than $250,000 in new revenue so far this year without compromising our news integrity. But my passions are strategic planning, investigative reporting and teaching. I plan for the future, with a focus on innovations and development. It’s no accident that we have built our news quality, online and print traffic, even with shrinking resources because I have assembled a strong team from advertising, circulation, research, and marketing. I help oversee watchdog projects at my paper and The Miami Herald. I help plan, launch, guide and edit investigations in English and Spanish, on all platforms. I am President of Investigative Reporters & Editors, an organization that changed my career. I travel the country and internationally teaching investigating reporting, source building and showing students how to manage and juggle their first job out of college. I am a cheerleader. My goal is always to develop others. I love this gig. I have helped indict a police chief, union boss, sitting commissioner and public servants. My work has helped changed laws, helped free a man from a life sentence and overturned a rigged mayoral election. But at the core, it means little, if I cannot pass my knowledge to others. Back home I recruit for both newsrooms and the McClatchy Company. I believe in this profession; we change lives; we change laws; we make the world better. I am looking for a slot where I can nurture a team of students, challenge them, and have fun doing it. FIU gave me a shot when no one else would; my professors were unselfish with their time and talents. They prepared me to succeed. Our industry has changed. FIU is perfectly positioned like no other university to operate in a global market place. I can think of no greater opportunity than to come full circle to my school to help and develop the next generation of FIU journalists.
Wishing you continued success,
Manny Garcia
DEAN OF THE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION QUESTIONNAIRE
Manny Garcia
Current budget for which you are responsible/university $5 million budget Largest budget you have managed $10 million Current # of full time and part time direct report Current 8 direct reports/60 total employees/total full time and part time employees for which full and part-time employees, you are responsible/total full time and part time employees in plus 100 freelance workers. the university Largest total # of staff managed 280 total full and part-time employees. Largest private gift you have asked for and received; largest Directly asked for $100K; grant received $75K cash, $25 in- kind. Largest grant: $500K Full professor with tenure (Yes/No) and date each was No awarded Discipline:
1) What is your understanding of the leadership opportunities at Florida International University and the role of the Dean of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication (e.g. current situation and future growth)? Please include your vision for the future of education at SJMC.
Opportunity: The university is uniquely positioned geographically, in the most diverse area of the United States, to recruit, educate and produce the best students in the world - at a time when most newsrooms, public relations, and marketing companies across the U.S. and regionally lack the diversity and skill sets needed to build their businesses in the global marketplace. Leadership: The school needs a Dean who is a cheerleader, internally and externally; a leader who sets clear expectations and a vision: We will work hard, be creative, collaborate, challenge and cheer each other on. Iron sharpens iron - we make each other better. There are financial realities, but those are challengers to overcome. I don’t look at them as barriers. My role: We want to be risk-takers; researchers who set the agenda for the next generation of communicators -- why should Apple have all the fun? A vision: Have our Computer Sciences students team up with our Political Sciences and SJMC students and create a free App that lets citizens track campaign contributions, locally, state- wide, nationally, and map it? Newsrooms don’t have the staff to create, let alone maintain it. So why not make our mark - get huge publicity, for such a public service. Florida International University has the brains and talent to achieve this feat and even more. This is but one example of what we can do, together, and then we find a funding source; it’s doable. The future: From Day One come to work as a strategic builder and ask, “What can we do
DEAN OF THE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION QUESTIONNAIRE together to improve and grow our institution? What support can I give the faculty and students to encourage them to realize their dreams?” We want build the model international newsroom of the future - a Thomson Reuters-like operation that trains and serves the needs of financially-strapped professional news organizations. The hub, paid by gifts and grants, will be a model that prepares journalists but also our public relations and marketing students to operate in the 24 hour world of news and feed its demands.
2) What is your experience and results in seeking outside resources (gifts, grants, partnerships) for an institution/organization? To explain your experiences, provide an example of an accomplishment, the role you were in, and the process you used.
I am President of Investigative Reporters and Editors. As IRE President - besides leading the board of directors and helping to advise our Executive Director - my job is to be a fundraiser. I have spent years “making asks” - from $500 to $500,000. I also help write grant proposals, gift letters, identify potential donors or find collaborative partnerships for in- kind donations. I have an international network of contacts who financially support the work of journalism, but who also can open the doors to more donors. I have helped write proposals that have been used to secure McCormick Foundation Grants for training workshops, and John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Grants. I have lobbied the heads of McCormick Foundation. I prepared a presentation, highlighting our successes and how we could grow the training even more with their continued support. McCormick re-upped its grant. Accomplishments: Two years ago, IRE asked me to make a matching pledge speech during our conference luncheon. My speech highlighted key work that our members and students have produced over the years: saved lives, changed laws, ousted crooked politicians, and solved Civil Rights murders. I asked everyone at the luncheon to hold the pledge envelope while I spoke and think about how IRE had helped their careers. That 10 minute speech brought about $20K. As Dean, I would use my connections and relationships to ensure the financial well- being of the SJMC for generations to come. I would relish the opportunity to help build an endowment for the SJMC. Just in South Florida alone, there are so many wealthy individuals who are thirsty to leave a lasting legacy and I can think of no better gift than to support the SJMC.
DEAN OF THE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION QUESTIONNAIRE
3) What is your experience with leading an agenda for strategic change through planning? How have you worked strategically to increase your organization’s quality, national profile, and rankings? To explain your experiences, provide an example of an accomplishment, the role you were in, and the process you used. This is right in my wheelhouse. A brief history: Before journalism, I spent 10 years in sales, marketing, public relations and logistical planning. I worked for a mom and pop beauty supply store in Fort Lauderdale and when I left: we were a key player in the South Florida market, with accounts nationally and in Latin America. A vision: It’s all about thinking big and playing above your fighting weight. Creating a culture of confidence. That leads to victories, which build on each other. At every supervisory role, I have led the charge to improve our culture and focus on strategic planning. A great example: I took over El Nuevo Herald in March of 2009, right in the middle of layoffs, budget cuts, and two price increases. Morale was poor; subscribers were dropping the newspaper. I had credibility as a journalist but almost no one trusted me at El Nuevo Herald because I came from The Miami Herald - and they questioned could I even function in Spanish. I immediately created a working group, including the veteran El Nuevo Herald Advertising Sales Director, our circulation director, our head of Public Relations and Marketing and our top market researcher. I also met with each newsroom employee and asked them what we needed to do to succeed. What were we doing wrong? What were we doing good? From these meetings and conversations we created a strategic plan to grow the business and build our profile. It was clear that we had lost touch “con el pueblo,” with the people. We launched a marketing campaign on radio and television -- all free via our trade agreements; we made sure our people were at events. I wrote a letter to former subscribers asking them to return; we did a mailer aimed at our target audience in areas of Miami-Dade County. The results: I learned this Friday that we have grown home delivery circulation for 11 consecutive months; we have beat Sunday single copy sales estimates for 2 consecutive months. We have also undertaken a specific analysis of our online readers. The result: we have grown unique local visitors on our website year over year -- a key figure for advertisers. Readers also spend more time on our website than any other newspaper in our chain - another key measure. Our profile nationally, and internationally has grown; we provide colleagues at other news organizations, with advice on how to grow and target their audience better. We our ranked among the most read websites in the United States as far as reach, in
DEAN OF THE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION QUESTIONNAIRE
English and Spanish.
4) Please give an example of the results of your involvement in any major diversity initiatives. To explain your experiences, provide an example of an accomplishment, the role you were in, and the process you used. Diversity experience: I recruit students and job candidates for El Nuevo Herald, The Miami Herald and our parent company McClatchy and before that, for Knight Ridder. I also teach a class called multi-cultural reporting, which focus on ethnic reporting, as well as diversity in skill sets. My message is consistent: newsrooms are losing clout, readers, viewers and credibility because they do not mirror their communities. I am also a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and have spoken at the National Association of Black Journalists. In both instances, my push has been to bring more diversity into the field of investigative reporting. IRE has been very supportive in this effort because there is a real thirst for reporters who can speak the language and dig in their communities. A key accomplishment: Diversifying the staff at El Nuevo Herald. The newsroom has been primarily male. I set up a leadership training program internally and identified grant money to send a promising female editor to The Poynter Institute. I also recruited one of the top female reporters in the country to join El Nuevo Herald; she now covers the City of Miami. I was able to accomplish this by working with our Human Resources Director to create a more diverse working environment and identify training opportunities .
5) What is your experience with hiring smart, developing talent, delegating, and holding people accountable? To explain your experiences, provide an example of an accomplishment, the role you were in, and the process you used. I am considered one of the top recruiters of talent in the industry. Not only within my news organization, but other news organizations routinely call me for help - most recently the Wall Street Journal called me for help with candidates for key jobs. I have a fairly simple philosophy: find the most talented individual out there; talk to them about their wants and desires and see how they fit within our newsrooms. I look for leadership, character, unselfishness, critical thinking skills. Once in place, I give them assignments, and let them run -- I want them to create the success, knowing that I am there to help if needed, but I am not a micro-manager. I delegate and let the success happen. If a plan falls short of the mark, we learn from it. My goal is to never
DEAN OF THE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION QUESTIONNAIRE break someone’s spirit. I have made it a point to develop talent. I believe in succession management. A good leader develops his or her successors to make sure the operation continues in as seamless a fashion as possible. I have been credited over the years with building top leadership teams at The Herald. Many of my hires have gone on to lead other sections of The Miami Herald, El Nuevo Herald, the Associated Press, Bloomberg and The New York Times. I love the proverb “To Whom Much is Given, Much is Expected.” I hold myself that to that standard, and I expect that from my team. I reward success and my direct reports understand the accountability process. I communicate clearly, and like to put things in writing to make sure we are on the same page. I meet regularly with direct reports to make sure our evaluation and strategic initiatives are working as they should. And if they are not, we tweak it. I am not shy about performance managing problem employees. It provides the opportunity to hire better people. My goal is always to help workers achieve their utmost potential. I view their success as my success.
6) What is your perspective on the role of faculty in shared government and what has been your experience with governance?
Faculty plays a critical role in the process. It’s incumbent on faculty to communicate openly, operate collaboratively, be part of the deliberative process on issues of critical importance that impact the future success of the university. Faculty and the administration must work together, respecting each other’s points of views, but always focused on the shared goal: growing the university. As a Dean, my role would be to play a key role in shared government where our faculty is afford a voice in the larger picture, but also at a department level. We want to be a team where research is encouraged, difference of opinions respected and a culture that nourishes the development of the whole student to succeed in the global marketplace. I come at governance from two sides. * I am Editor/General Manager at El Nuevo Herald, but also a member of the Executive Committee entrusted with looking after the greater good of the company, that means: maintain open communication with my staff, be fiscally responsible, provide a quality and fruitful work environment, foster innovation and risk taking, represent our company with dignity in the community and deliver the most credible news for our readers. * As President of IRE, I co-chair the Audit Committee, so I need to make sure we are providing proper governance, meeting our IRS requirements as a non-profit organization, meeting the requirements of the University of Missouri, where IRE is headquartered and
DEAN OF THE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION QUESTIONNAIRE providing a detailed report for our members on how we manage our $1 million-plus budget.
7) Are there any circumstances about your background that you would like to offer an additional explanation?
I am uniquely qualified for this job. It is a dream job. I graduated from the SJMC. I am a Torch Award winner. I have spoken at commencement, been honored by the SJMC. I have a keen understanding of its standing, as well as its future. I know South Florida and have built up relationships that will open doors for collaboration and fundraising. I have a good reputation in this community, nationally and internationally. I also have a global view of business and journalism, and we can only go up. I am currently involved in our strategic Cuba Plan, which is the future of journalism, but communications, in a free Cuba. FIU has training on-going for journalists, but I bring an even larger skill set strategically to where we can become the signature university in a free Cuba - a country that will desperately need good communicators, in journalism, public relations, marketing. My wife is an FIU grad from the School of Nursing. We believe in public service; we believe in FIU and want to be legacy partners in its future growth.
8) If people who are supportive of your work and those who are not as supportive of your work were randomly called, what would they be likely to say about your strengths and areas for improvement? Strength: Born leader, strong communicator, ethical, treats people with dignity and respect, a cheerleader, changes culture, relentless, passionate, a schmoozer, and gets things done.
Areas for improvement: Come up with less ideas; manage up more; spend less time at the office.
9) Have you been asked to step down from a job; if so, what were the circumstances?
No.