A Tampa Tribune staffer tells his colleagues what he really thinks of his organization

As the financial losses have tallied up at Media General in Virginia, the parent company of the Tampa Tribune/WFLA News Channel 8 and TBO.com, hundreds of staffers, some there for decades, have lost their jobs. Some of those longtime staffers (such as Daniel Ruth) have gone on to other jobs in journalism, but sadly many more have not.

We’ve hung out with some of those former longtime staffers on occasion over the years, and, perhaps not surprisingly for people who have devoted their whole professional careers to an institution, they care deeply about what’s happening at Mother Trib, and they’re not pleased.

In December, Media General fired 165 staffers at the Tribune and some of its smaller publications. Rumors continue to abound about the tenuous future of the publication. And some reporters there tell CL the morale hasn’t been very good at Parker Street for a long time.

This article appears in Feb 9-15, 2012.