Yesenia Randazzo, a recognized Miami business leader, is joining Miami Fourth Estate as its new director of development, the nonprofit news organization announced this week. She will be spearheading funding efforts as the newsroom looks to expand into additional communities in the coming year.
“I am a big believer in quality local reporting, and it’s something all of Miami’s villages and neighborhoods need. That’s why I’m thrilled to help build sustainable financial support for hyper-local journalism in our communities,” she said.
With newspapers dying at the rate of two per week, the field of nonprofit journalism has been expanding to fill the gap, and major philanthropic institutions are realizing that news needs critical attention. Just last week, a new initiative called Press Forward announced $500 million in funding over the next five years to help rebuild local for-profit and nonprofit newsrooms, with an overall goal of $1 billion.
Miami Fourth Estate is a member of the Institute for Nonprofit News, a leading network of hundreds of nonprofit newsrooms.
Randazzo will be leading the development effort for the organization, which started with the Key Biscayne Independent and the Anti-Social podcast. She brings more than a decade of experience as an entrepreneur and manager in the hospitality industry, where she frequently planned and participated in community events and fundraising campaigns for various causes.
She is a graduate of Florida International University where she majored in political science, and is known for her award-winning run as the proprietor of her namesake Italian restaurant on Key Biscayne.
“Yesenia’s extensive business ties and community knowledge made her a great choice for this position,” said Tony Winton, the president of Miami Fourth Estate. “We are very lucky to have someone with her passion and professionalism join our team.”
Randazzo’s responsibilities will include working grant and giving programs such as Give Miami Day, coming up on Nov. 16, and NewsMatch, a national program that doubles dollars for nonprofit newsrooms. She’ll also be working to partner with businesses and institutions who want to support strong local journalism.
She can be reached at give@kbindependent.org