Almost inevitably when you see a media announcement about newspaper layoffs, or pulling coverage out of a community, or downsizing or disappearing news sections, it is accompanied by the rationale that it is "to better serve our readers."
Well, both daily newspapers in Tampa Bay are in the process of better serving their readers.
As a cost-cutting measure, The Tampa Tribune has ceased publishing weekly sections for Pinellas County and Central Tampa.
"It is what it is," said Editor Janet Weaver just before Thanksgiving. "A lot of newspapers go through this every year when they look at how you think you are going to do in the next year."
Newsprint costs are expected to rise again next year, and advertising revenues are generally flat nationally, prompting some major newspapers — including the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Chicago Tribune — to eliminate positions and solicit early retirements.
But Weaver said the Trib's section closings will not require eliminating any staff. The change, she explained, will allow reporters in those bureaus to focus on writing daily, full-run stories of greater importance and enterprise.
"We're keeping the bureau over there and keeping the staffing," Weaver said. "We're going to continue to cover things in the daily paper. The feeling is that we can probably do a better job on daily coverage without that once-a-week section."
Weaver doesn't buy the notion that folding the Pinellas section means the Trib is throwing in the towel in its war with the St. Petersburg Times.
"It would be wrong for people to view that as a retreat," said Weaver, whose tenure has seen a marked improvement in the quality of the paper. "This doesn't represent the totality of our efforts in Pinellas County; there is an awful lot of Pinellas news in the daily paper."
It may not be a retreat, but the Trib's staffing in Pinellas sure isn't what it used to be.
There was a time — much like the days when the great prairies of this nation were lousy with buffalo — when herds of daily newspaper reporters roamed and grazed freely throughout Pinellas County. On any given beat and in every city in Pinellas, you could get contrasting views from two different reporters every day. It was a war for turf, primarily, and readers' hearts, secondarily.
When I first got to this market in 1988 as a 28-year-old government reporter, I was stationed at the Tribune's downtown Clearwater office. It was one of five bureaus that the Trib had in Pinellas, just a few years after the outbreak of the newspaper war, when the Times challenged the Trib by moving a large staff into Tampa and the Trib countered by expanding in Pinellas. At its height, the Trib's Pinellas operations had 20 or so reporters, three to four assistant bureau chiefs and a bureau chief, not to mention a full-time editorial writer.
Today, the Trib's Pinellas bureau is home to six reporters. Those writers will now be led by Steve Girardi, who was running the Central Tampa section. Girardi has a long history in Pinellas and lives there. He replaces former bureau chief Rick Barry, whose weekly column focused on Pinellas politics.
As Barry himself pointed out in his last column (Nov. 20), he has shut down three Trib sections now: Pinellas, Tamiami (which covered Sarasota and Manatee counties) and SouthBay. "You can tell that the mere presence of the ol' Barry column surely guarantees … something, though surely not permanence," he said in his latest farewell.
Barry has since been transferred to the metro staff to cover a new beat on commuting.
As for Central Tampa residents who used to get their own section of the paper, they're now getting the South Tampa section. Those community section zones in Tampa will be redrawn in light of the changes, Weaver said.
Across the bay at the Times, there is some shrinkage in the works as well. Editor, CEO and Chairman Paul Tash said last week that Florida's largest-circulation newspaper will trim 5 inches from its broadsheet design, going to a 50-inch newspaper. The Times doesn't expect to lose news space because of the change but will save an estimated $3.5 million in newsprint costs annually.
Tash said the move comes from a "combination of factors, including the fact [the size] is becoming the industry standard." Some press upgrades are planned, also, but Tash said those improvements won't be apparent to readers.
The Tribune went to a slightly smaller size in July 2001 when it redesigned the newspaper. Hundreds of other newspapers across the nation have similarly shaved a few inches off their width, and now, some chains (most notably Knight-Ridder, which owns the Miami Herald) have said they're considering moving to a tabloid format, a shift that is sweeping the European press.
Neither local paper seems aimed toward that trend.
We remain fortunate in Tampa Bay to have two high-quality daily newspapers that are not undergoing staffing cutbacks, as have been seen across the nation. Neither the Times nor the Trib plans layoffs in 2006, unlike the Orlando Sentinel (which plans an undisclosed number of editorial job cuts) and possibly the South Florida Sun-Sentinel (part of the same Tribune Co. that is cutting jobs across the nation).
But at least one other change could be in the works at the Times. One source who requested anonymity says the Monday edition of the Clearwater section is on the chopping block. Tash would not confirm that, saying only that the paper did not plan any cutbacks that would be "budget-driven."
When asked if he had any comment on the Trib folding its Pinellas section, he repeated their assertion that it would not shortchange readers: "They said it wouldn't have any impact at all, that it could in fact increase their coverage." But Tash was laughing as he said it.
This article appears in Nov 30 – Dec 6, 2005.