Report for America journalists join Miami Herald newsrooms
The Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald newsrooms will be receiving two additional reporters this year as corps members of Report for America, a national service program that places talented emerging journalists in local newsrooms to tackle under-covered topics and communities in the United States.
Yadira Lopez, who will be working with Miami Herald editors, will focus on the issue of economic mobility — an important issue in South Florida even before the COVID-19 pandemic — and its impact on the region’s economy and educational efforts.
Lopez was born in Santa Clara, Cuba, and grew up in Miami. She was editor of the Catalyst, the newspaper at New College of Florida, before going to work at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. During that time, she was an IRE CAR Bootcamp Diversity Fellow and a Poynter video journalism workshops scholarship recipient. She also spent two years working as an English-language assistant in two small towns in the north of France.
She spent the last year as an RFA reporter at the Malheur Enterprise in
Vale, Oregon, providing enterprise coverage of Latino communities in rural eastern Oregon. Lopez speaks Spanish and
French fluently, as well as a bit of Creole.
Syra Ortiz-Blanes, who recently earned her master’s in journalism from Columbia University, will be covering the 2020 elections through the Hispanic prism. Raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Ortiz-Blanes moved to Philadelphia to attend the University of Pennsylvania, where she began to carve out a career as a writer and podcaster.
She has produced a number of compelling tales, including a multimedia project on Puerto Ricans displaced by Hurricane Maria, multiple pieces as a staff writer for The Philadelphia Citizen and a firstperson account published in The New York Times on the resilient nature of those on the island following a series of 2020 earthquakes in spite of slow government response.
Ortiz-Blanes, too, has roots in Miami.
“Many of my holidays growing up were spent visiting family and friends in Miami. From countless visits to the old Planetarium with my abuelo to lively music performances in Little Havana with my cousins — this city has enchanted me my whole life with its warmth and spirit,” Ortiz-Blanes said. “Miami has shaped who I am, and it is an honor to have the opportunity to tell its stories. I am so excited to join el Nuevo Herald as a Report for America corps member and to have the opportunity to cover Florida’s diverse Latino communities in such a critical election year. “
Readers from both news outlets will benefit from the stories Lopez and Ortiz-Blanes produce. They are among 225 journalists who will be placed with 167 local news organizations
across 45 states and Puerto Rico.
Grants from Report for America — matched by the Miami Herald and el
Nuevo Herald — enable each newsroom to add a reporter. In addition, el Nuevo Herald will extend the term of a second RFA corps member hired in 2019. Lautaro Grinspan covers issues of relevance for Spanish-speaking communities.
“We are excited to have extra help during these unprecedented times,” said Aminda Marqués González, executive editor and publisher of the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald. “Local journalism is more essential than ever ,and there will be important stories to be told by these two journalists as we soon turn our attention to recovery and the aftermath of the coronavirus on our community.”
These reporting positions come at a time when local journalism is already reeling from years of newsroom cuts and unforeseen challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, Report for America helped fund 59 reporting positions across the country, of whom more than 90 percent are returning. This year’s program marks a major expansion.
“It’s now crystal clear that the need for trustworthy, accurate and local information can be a matter of life and death,” said Steven Waldman, co-founder and president of Report for America. “This surge of reporters should help meet this moment.”
Report for America aims to increase the size of its reporter corps each year — with a goal of 1,000 journalists by 2024. Its ability to scale the program is made possible by multiyear commitments from supporters like the Knight Foundation.