Veteran journalist Rick Hirsch has had a prolific career that’s spanned more than 40 years.
After starting out as a reporter for the Miami Herald, he eventually became the paper’s managing editor, a role that lasted 12 years. Then he retired and became a recruiter for the paper’s parent company, McClatchy, while simultaneously working as a professor at Florida International University.
But now, Hirsch will be embarking on a new journey: inaugural director of the Collier Prize for State Government Accountability where he once studied, the University of Florida.
Hirsch has been passionate about journalism since he was in elementary school during the Vietnam war.
“I was 10, 11 and reading books about politics and the war,” he said.
After intensely following the Watergate scandal and the journalists who played a part in Richard Nixon resigning, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, Hirsch’s love of news grew.
“I remember going, ‘Those guys are heroes. I want to be like them’,” said Hirsch.
He explained that the Collier Prize for State Government Accountability is a journalism competition that was created to encourage news organizations to focus more attention on state governments and investigate them.
The prize was inspired by Nathan Collier, a descendant of the founder of Collier’s Weekly, a magazine that published works of great investigative journalists like Upton Sinclair. Collier recently donated $8 million to sustain the competition and create a new local journalism symposium.
Although the prize is a part of the University of Florida, Hirsch will be staying in Miami and traveling to Gainesville occasionally.
Hirsch stated that he thinks there are two important pieces to being director — elevating the profile of the prize and creating a symposium on state government accountability reporting.
When asked to describe his career journey in three words, Hirsch said, “Keep on moving.”
