A new adventure: One Herald Guild

By Howard Cohen — Miami Herald Reporter since 1991

Everyone has a different story about their journey at the Miami Herald.

 Mine begins with being afraid to pee on my first day.

 You see, I was a new hire in Features' society department on June 3, 1991, under Jane Wooldridge, then-society columnist, who hired this then-eager and green 27-year-old after one brief interview.

 I was so determined to make a good impression and finish every new assignment on a computer system called Coyote I ignored the growing pain in my bladder that could easily have been alleviated with a short journey to the men's room, 'flush right' down the hall on the 5th floor of 1 Herald Plaza.

 My task: Compile the society calendar, assign photographers, interview gala chairs and write the cutline blurbs about the fundraisers.

 My name would be in print! In the Miami Herald!

 The same newspaper that featured me in a color photo as a 6-year-old first grader in Mrs. Gold's classroom at Leroy D. Fienberg Elementary in Miami Beach. Margaria Fichtner, before she was books page editor, wrote that story about Mrs. Gold's then-revolutionary way of teaching reading in April 1970.

 Margaria and I became colleagues 21 years later in the Features department. I don't think she was as jazzed as I was to meet the name on that newspaper page all those years earlier.

 From that auspicious start I rose through the department to take on pop music critic duties, under our then lead pop music critic Leonard Pitts Jr. Years later he asked me to be one of his groomsmen when he celebrated his 25th wedding anniversary in Maryland. But first I had to attend to my first professional interview: Lars Ulrich, drummer for Metallica. Would I ask the right questions? Would I sound like an idiot? 

Guess I passed the Metallica — and Pitts — test. 

I'd soon be covering major concerts for the Herald — including Guns n' Roses' Use Your Illusion New Year's Eve concert in 1991 at Joe Robbie Stadium. I used the word "behemoth" in that review, a word choice my soon to be best buddy and fellow Features staffer Rene Rodriguez never let me live down. Did I mention I was green? And under the influence of Marvel Comics' Stan Lee?

 As responsibilities grew, I did more interviews and reviews, wrote and reported the Herald's first major feature on the then-thriving Seattle music scene for the Herald in 1992. That was nirvana. Literally. 

 In 1994, I was given 15 minutes on the phone with one of my music idols, Stevie Nicks, and we wound up talking for 90. Would the 14-year-old Howard Cohen ever have believed he'd be nailing interviews like that years later? For an arts lede, at that, in Florida's foremost paper?

 Soon, I took on a health and fitness beat, all the while continuing the pop music work and becoming one of the Herald's back-up theater critics with retired theater critic Christine Dolen. I got to say "Hello, Dolly!" to the original matchmaker, Carol Channing, and tell Herald readers about her touring revival. I got to run lines from "All in the Family" and "Maude" with TV giant Norman Lear for the Miami Book Fair, too.

 Health and fitness reporting led to my creation of the former Sweat Equity column to review gym and fitness classes all over South Florida. By 2004, I documented my own journey into getting back into swimmer's shape through a first-person, weekly health series for which the Herald paired me with Beyonce's trainer and a UM nutritionist.

 One reader's letter never left me. She'd had diabetes. Said she never exercised. Or ate right. Her doctor was at wit's end. She told me how the column inspired her to make life changes. I was overjoyed to make her the subject of a Sweat Equity column in which we both walked arm-in-arm at the Dadeland Mall Walkers program. 

 Then came the 2008 recession. Layoffs. Reassignments. Tears. Fears. The pop music and health beats were cut. There'd have to be some changes made. 

 Features editor Joan Chrissos said "follow me to Neighbors." Joan has long become more than an editor and colleague. She is family. I followed. Apprehensively. 

I had interviewed some of the world's biggest celebrities at that point -- from Jane Fonda to an 18-year-old Taylor Swift. I was the American Idol columnist. Idol Watch was a popular blog for us. I was branded. Like Jim Croce once famously sang, "I got a name." What would the readers think? 

Covered city government meetings. Palmetto Bay. Cutler Bay. Pinecrest. Coral Gables. Sunny Isles Beach. Made new contacts. Kept on doing pop music features, reviews, anyway. Even brought back Sweat Equity. Made it all fit.

A new opportunity reared. Ellie Brecher, a colleague from the early Features days, was our obituary reporter. Obits, like Neighbors, used to be a training ground for new reporters. But Ellie raised writing obituaries to an art form.  

In December 2013, I was promoted out of Neighbors to take this important beat, a position that documents a community and makes lifetime "friends" for the Miami Herald.  

I made connections and found the six degrees of separation that binds all of us longtimers — in my case, 52+ years and counting as a Miami-Dade guy. 

Former publisher Alex Villoch often told how she'd field calls from readers who told her, "it'd almost be worth dying to have Howard Cohen write my obituary."

As a result, I went to viewings and funeral services for people I had never met but through writing an obituary on a family member. I'll never forget the grace and kindness of the mother who lost her 26-year-old daughter to a diabetic attack while abroad in 2017. What an honor to meet her in person and share her daughter's service at her Grove home. Yes, the 52,000 page views for that particular obit was nice from a business sense. But the mutual memories we made that day: priceless. 

Of course, changes aside, pop music and I remained synonymous. And I fulfilled a bucket wish: I secured the first-ever full-on interview with Barbra Streisand for the Miami Herald in 2016 to advance her first Miami concert in 53 years. From our 15-minute conversation grew three lead stories for three sections: the arts advance, the concert review, and a special health section feature on women's heart health, a passion of Streisand's and a mission of her Foundation.

Then came more company changes in September 2017. Obits, gone. Arts coverage. Gone. Page views became my new daily obsession. The Pars.ly app suddenly competed with Facebook and iTunes for battery usage on the iPhone. 

Meet real time/breaking news. Page views. Only, more page views. 12 million-plus on a 7-million company goal the first year out. Goodbye Barbra, goodbye Taylor, goodbye daily obits on South Florida's most interesting people. Goodbye, too, to stories on the latest advance in the treatment of heart disease right in our own backyard. We've got Florida Man and alligators. 

My first shift position ever. 9 hours a day, Tuesday-Saturday. An adjustment.

And now, a new adventure: One Herald Guild. A seat at the table with my Herald family. Talented newcomers like Nick Nehamas, Joey Flechas, Monique Madan and Samantha Gross who weren't even born on the day I was too afraid to leave my desk for nature's call decades ago. 

And a seat with veterans like my closest friends, Leonard Pitts Jr., Rene Rodriguez and Connie Ogle, who all swam in Herald waters before I dove in headfirst and from whom I learned, laughed and debated with over the years. They, and me, all are a part of this exciting new era of the Miami Herald. One that will strengthen local journalism. One that will show the community we are in this together. And we are one. And I'm excited again. 

And I'm not afraid to get up from my desk anymore.