Alexandra Villoch, the slender and well-dressed publisher of the Miami Herald, was quick to make one thing clear as she addressed The Harbinger staff on Friday afternoon, “I am not a journalist, but I run the Miami Herald.”
And it is true, she never worked as a journalist. Earning a degree in business by the age of 21, Villoch has always been a standout and, while her manicured hands don’t show it, it was a grueling and long climb to the top.
Wherever she went, whether it was her first job at the now out-of-business Eastern Airlines or when she worked as United Airlines’ General Manager, or beginning a new phase of her career at the Miami Herald, she was met with raised eyebrows and whispered grumblings about her supposed inexperience, especially from her male co-workers.
She shared a story from the early pat of her career, when she was new at Eastern Airlines; they asked her to fetch coffee and she did – she was new, the youngest at the board table, the only woman, and the only one there with an MBA. She got the coffee. However, when she brought it back, it spilled an event she called “an accident” – an accident that sent a message. They should get their own coffee.
“There would always be the ‘What she is doing her? She doesn’t know anything,’” Villoch said as she reflected on her entrance to the Miami Herald.
But her lack of so-called “experience” in the journalism field, and the sexism that she faced did not deter her. Instead, Villoch took the approach she carried all her life. Much like the exuberant student in class always raising their hand, she was the one raising her hand during meetings, asking for more work, putting herself on the line.
“There is nothing like asking your boss to take care of one of their problems,” she said with a smile. “You want to be the one in the front row. If you do that, you’ll be a standout.”
She was one in hundred. She succeed David Landsberg as publisher of the Miami Herald in 2014. Her position makes the Miami Herald the only newspaper in the country to have a female in the top four ranks.
With an average readership of one million subscription readers, and a website that attracts millions of hits in web traffic from around the world, and brings the average digital reader back to their website eighteen times a day, Villoch is winning the fight against the “dying” newspaper industry, doing what she’s always done: learning, observing and evolving.
“What we produce is information – good, high-quality information,” she said. “There is a place for a serious journalism institution like ours.”
The Miami Herald was one of the first in the industry to go online. They have embraced and led in technology. They work hard, she said, not just to adapt to technology, but to stay one step ahead.
“[The readers] trust us to filter information. They bring us into their homes. The trust they have in us is a big responsibility.”
And, she stresses, this motivates her and the very dedicated Herald staff to work hard every day, to innovate and continue to make a difference in the community.
While it’s only been a year since she’s been appointed, the newspaper has covered major stories in that time, like the Innocence Lost series that covered the deaths of children in DCF care, prison abuse and the rampant the for-profit college scandal. These stories have led to real change.
Villoch has also rolled out major changes to both the print edition and the digital version of the Miami Herald. In the past month, the Miami Herald has changed.
“We continue to tinker,” she said about the new look. “You don’t need to get everything absolutely right immediately.”
The change brought about anger from some readers. One reader sent “Go back on the raft you came in on.” Some would be thrown into a rage, but Villoch laughs it off even as she tells the story. She’s glad that “They are so passionate.”
“We all handle things like in a different way. I address it with humor,” she said. And to that racist email, she simply replied, “I am sorry to disappoint you, but I flew in on an airplane.” She stresses that it is important to respond to inappropriate, racist or off-color humor.
“Whatever you stand for, stand for it…otherwise, you devalue yourself and what you believe in.”
With so much weight on her shoulders, she stands straight and tall on the mountain top. It doesn’t faze her though because her manicured hand knows how to throw a punch.
