It's Sunday morning once again infidels. I've decided to take you on a tour of some of the interesting places in my hometown, Miami, Florida. Today I'll start with the Miami Freedom Tower. Once upon a time, a long long time ago, that was the tallest building in Miami and was the office building of the Miami Daily News. In the 1960's, this was the location where the first wave of Cuban Exiles would be processed as they escaped from the island. It sat vacant for many years afterward. Today, there's a museum in there. In all my years living here, I've never been inside.Stay tuned for more interesting places in my hometown. Asta la vista infidels.
3 comments:
I still remember the 2 weeks that my family and I lived in "La casa de la libertad" upon arriving in the gool ol' USA. God Bless America!
While it's true that the "tower" part of the building contained only offices, this wasn't just the "office building" of The Miami Daily News. It was their only building. The pressroom and loading dock were on the ground floor, to the rear of the building. The production areas were in other parts of the building beneath the tower.
In the 50's, they moved to a more modern facility on the south side of the Miami River, near NW 10th Avenue where they remained until 1966, when the News enterd into a JOA (Joint Operating Agreement) with The Miami Herald Publishing Company. This was the first JOA in US newspaper history, and required approval of the Federal Government.
James Cox, the sole owner / Publisher, was tired of losing millions per year, and was going to totally cease publication. John S.- and James L. Knight, principal owners of the privately held Miami Herald Publishing Company didn't want to be the only (print) editorial voice in Miami, so they convinced Cox to enter into the JOA.
The JOA required that all production equipment at the Miami News' facility be dismantled and shipped out of the state. Ninety percent of Cox's employees jobs were saved, and they became employees of MHPC. Only the news/editorial employees remained employees of Cox, and had offices on the 6th floor of the MHPC's mre modern plant, at #1 Herald Plaza, on Biscayne Bay. Cox's staff wrote the news and took their own photos. MHPC employees (including those formerly employed by Cox) produced the hard copy product, sold advertising to appear in the pages of the product, and provided other necessary business oriented support, including sales of circulation and distribution.
The JOA included the equal sharing of profit OR loss by Cox and MHPC. After many years of continued loss, The Miami News ceased operations in the 1990's.
Bringing Miami News employees over to MHPC and continuing the publication of The Miami News without missing a single day during the transition was one of the most challenging and rewarding periods of my 31-year career with The Miami Herald.
Thanks for sharing this nostalgic and significant photo of Miami's history. But for the newness of the automobiles, it looks as though it could have been taken in the 50's.
Thanks so much for the history of this building. I used to get the Miami News when I was a kid. I always preferred it since it was an afternoon paper since it always had the complete baseball scores from the previous night. It's too bad they had to go.
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