Patricia Marroquin—HispanicBusiness.com
cuba reporter, florida sun-sentinel
Havana, Cuba-based newspaper reporter Ray Sanchez has been called back to Fort Lauderdale after the Florida Sun-Sentinel decided to shut down its bureau on the island, the Broward-Palm Beach New Times reported Monday.
The Sun-Sentinel’s Havana bureau, jointly operated with Tribune Co. sister paper the Chicago Tribune, reportedly has been the only U.S. newspaper presence on the island. Other U.S. news operations remaining on the island are AP, CNN and NBC, the New Times reported on its Daily Pulp blog.
Sources say Sun-Sentinel Executive Editor Earl Maucker told his staff on Friday that the decision by the Tribune to end its funding of the bureau combined with the Sun-Sentinel’s own cuts resulted in the office’s closure.
Fidel Castro approved the Sentinel’s Cuba bureau in 2000 and it opened the next year, the blog item stated. Back then, Maucker said: “Our goal all along has been to provide our readers the most comprehensive coverage available on a vitally important region to South Florida. A bureau in Cuba brings us a step closer to providing that level of coverage.”
Sanchez had written a twice-weekly column, “Direct from Havana.”
The paper’s bureau had been the only newspaper operation in Cuba since 2004, when the Dallas Morning News closed its bureau.
