Monica Richardson, the Vice President of Local News at McClatchy and former Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald Executive Editor, accepted the Benjamin C. Bradlee Editor of the Year Award from the National Press Foundation at NPF’s annual award dinner February 15, 2024.

“Monica Richardson stands out as a leader who has driven strong and impactful journalism for years, forging deeper ties with her communities and holding public officials to account at every turn,” NPF judges said. 

Under her leadership, the Miami Herald won a Pulitzer Prize in 2022 for its coverage of the collapse of the Surfside condo building and for Editorial Writing in 2023 for a series on Florida officials’ failures to deliver on taxpayer-funded services.

NPF judges commended her ability in handling “some of the most searing battles between the press and politicians.”

In July of 2021, the Herald reported in an editorial that Florida Gov. Ron “DeSantis’ anti-riot law didn’t apply as Cuba protesters shut down a Miami-Dade road.”

Afterward, Richardson, the first Black editor-in-chief of the Miami Herald, received a racist email. She published her response in the paper:

“I was raised humble, raised to turn the other cheek and be the bigger person, to move on and get over it,” Richardson wrote. “That’s a smart lesson and a smart way to move through life at times. This isn’t one of those times. As a Black woman, I refuse to oblige the various ways that some people seem to demand that I simply take what they give. To the contrary, hate can’t be solved with silence. The reality is that the silence is as loud as the injustice of racism itself.”

Now vice president of local news at McClatchy, Richardson supervises editors in McClatchy’s largest markets, including Miami, Sacramento, Kansas City, Charlotte, Raleigh and Fort Worth, Texas. She also leads McClatchy’s Talent, Culture and Training (TCT) team, which is focused on helping recruit, develop and retain a diverse and dedicated staff in all markets.

Judges called her a “fierce advocate” for diversity and a free press.

Richardson has served on the board of the Atlanta Press Club, the Atlanta Association of Black Journalists, Associated Press Media Editors and the Georgia APME. She previously worked for the Charlottesville Observer, The Florida Times-Union, and Lexington Herald-Leader. For 15 years, she wrote for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution where she served as the digital managing editor and then was promoted to senior managing editor in 2018.

Richardson will accept the award at NPF’s annual dinner on Feb. 15, 2024.

Previous winners of the Benjamin C. Bradlee Award include Manny García of The Austin American-Statesman, former New York Times’ editor Dean Baquet and Peter Bhatia of the Detroit Free Press.