Press: Bronze Shoes for Big Mac

An old-school editor steps down, leaving behind a better paper

There was nothing routine about the retirement at the Miami Herald this month when Executive Editor John McMullan, 62, ended more than 30 years of crusading against crime and exposing the permissive foibles of Miami's hustlers, hoodlums and hoodwinking officeholders. If his retirement was not exactly the end of an era, it was certainly a milestone in Miami's 87-year history.

Under McMullan's one-man rule over both the news and editorial departments, the Herald (circ. 443,000) often managed the difficult feat of remaining fresh and...