I am in the midst of researching the career of Miami Herald Executive Editor Janet Chusmir – who began her career in the women’s pages. She was the first woman in that position at the Herald. She said that her biggest regret was approving the above Tropic magazine cover – featuring Dave Barry using his middle finger. His boss at the time was Gene Weingarten. He describes the experience below: “Gene Weingarten: The middle finger made its debut in the late 1970s with this photograph. Papers ran it because it was profferred by the vice president of the United States. You probably haven’t seen another example of The Finger unless…

Yesterday, I interviewed former Miami Herald Executive Editor Larry Jinks about Janet Chusmir – who went on to become the first woman to head the newspaper. He was good friends with Janet and was very helpful in providing information about Janet’s career and rise through newspaper management. I appreciate his time. Janet was unique for a woman in journalism in many ways. First, she took a non-traditional career path by spending many years as a homemaker raising two children before becoming a journalist. Second, she went from a women’s page editor to a successful executive editor. I am writing a conference paper about Janet’s career.