Former SunPost Staffers Take the "Lead"
A new SoBe paper plans to do everything the failed SunPost didn't do
Carlos Miller
Former Miami SunPost staffers who have launched The Lead newspaper in Miami Beach. From left to right, Lee Molloy, Michael Menchero, Patti Fanucci and Angie Hargot.
Only in South Beach, where people are crazy enough to share studio apartments with crowing roosters, will someone be crazy enough to launch a newspaper.
After all, aren’t newspapers relics of the previous century that are doing nothing more than clinging to life like a certain Cuban dictator?
The truth is, Miami Beach happens to be one of the hottest news towns in the world. And ever since the Miami SunPost ceased publishing earlier this year, it left a void for its 88,000 residents.
So four disgruntled SunPost staffers launched their own newspaper last week. The Lead Miami Beach newspaper promises to be everything the SunPost wasn't. The Lead will be operated by Angie Hargot, Lee Molloy, Michael Menchero and Patti Fanucci.
“You can expect a complete difference in style,” said Molloy, co-publisher and senior writer.
“We created The Lead to be much fresher, much more young, more hip, much more South Beach, looking towards an art and trendy crowd as opposed to the SunPost, which was really aiming more at an older generation.”
Of course every study out there indicates that this “young” and “hip” generation is shunning newspapers for online news.
But as Molloy points out, you can’t exactly take an online newspaper to the beach with you.
Well, you can, but then you have the issue of sun glare. And sand and water possibly damaging your laptop or cell phone. And then the problem of hiding your portable mobile device once you go in the water.
So we wish them well. The Lead threw a hell of an inauguration party last week that started off at the Romero Britto Gallery on Lincoln Road and ended up at Set just a few blocks down.
When we woke up the next morning, we realized that it was not a dream. They did, in fact, launch a newspaper.
Click on the video to hear more from Molloy and see who attended the launch party.
Posted Tuesday, Jul 14, 2009 - 2:03 AM EST
