Cox selling Palm Beach Post, Austin American-Statesman

[Bronco77]

Man, this seems right in Tronc's wheelhouse. Which would suck for a dozen or so reporters and some desk people.

Interesting what might happen to the desk under a Tronc purchase. The minuscule production desk in Fort Lauderdale (actually, Deerfield Beach now) is barely capable of handling the Sun Sentinel's print needs and wouldn't be able to take on the Post without extra help. The central Cox desk in West Palm Beach has, I believe, about 20 fulltimers (several of whom are ex-Sun Sentinel) and Lord knows how many part-timers. Thus, some of the Cox desk folks (probably no more than six or eight) might be absorbed into a combined operation.

If Gannett's the buyer, the point is moot -- all desk work goes to Louisville or wherever; end of story.

Agree with Fran about the Post fitting in with Tronc or Gannett. The Sun Sentinel's core circulation area ends north of Delray Beach. The Post is strongest from Boynton Beach through Jupiter but more or less pulled out of the Treasure Coast (now Gannett territory) around 2010 or so. So there's little overlap and some incentive for Tronc or Gannett to jump in (unless the Post's financials are really bad).

 

[BTExpress]

If it doesn't have any debt, its financials are better than most.

 

[Bronco77]

In anticipation of the sales of the Palm Beach and Austin papers, Cox is reorganizing the central copy desk operation (this supposedly was in the works anyway, but the plan has been changed with the remaining Cox newspapers in Dayton and Atlanta in mind).

Details are complicated, but the gist of the situation is that once the desk is reorganized and people are laid off, three design and four copy-editing positions will remain at the central desk in West Palm Beach. This is out of a current staff of approximately 35 -- news, sports, about 15 part-timers and 20 full-timers. It will take some time for the reorganization to take place, and layoffs aren't expected until mid-February (although people reportedly will learn their fates much earlier, probably just before Christmas). Additionally, there will be a crew of page "finishers" -- current employees of the home papers designated by each newsroom -- to write headlines and cutlines, trim stories to fit, and proof and approve pages. The remaining copy editors will serve as spell-checkers, fact-checkers and grammarians.

And once Palm Beach and Austin are sold -- date still unknown -- the West Palm Beach central desk will be shut down and the seven-person skeleton crew will go away. Whatever copy desks these papers have after that will be determined by the new owners.

The Dayton central desk that currently produces news pages for Dayton and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution will emerge mostly unscathed and will continue to serve as the central desk after the sales.

In any case, major bloodletting is on the horizon in West Palm Beach.

 

[Fredrick]

In anticipation of the sales of the Palm Beach and Austin papers, Cox is reorganizing the central copy desk operation (this supposedly was in the works anyway, but the plan has been changed with the remaining Cox newspapers in Dayton and Atlanta in mind).

Details are complicated, but the gist of the situation is that once the desk is reorganized and people are laid off, three design and four copy-editing positions will remain at the central desk in West Palm Beach. This is out of a current staff of approximately 35 -- news, sports, about 15 part-timers and 20 full-timers. It will take some time for the reorganization to take place, and layoffs aren't expected until mid-February (although people reportedly will learn their fates much earlier, probably just before Christmas). Additionally, there will be a crew of page "finishers" -- current employees of the home papers designated by each newsroom -- to write headlines and cutlines, trim stories to fit, and proof and approve pages. The remaining copy editors will serve as spell-checkers, fact-checkers and grammarians.

And once Palm Beach and Austin are sold -- date still unknown -- the West Palm Beach central desk will be shut down and the seven-person skeleton crew will go away. Whatever copy desks these papers have after that will be determined by the new owners.

The Dayton central desk that currently produces news pages for Dayton and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution will emerge mostly unscathed and will continue to serve as the central desk after the sales.

In any case, major bloodletting is on the horizon in West Palm Beach.

This sounds like a disaster. Somebody who may be a suit may have to be the "finishers" at papers. Who else will finish?

 

[Doc Holliday]

In anticipation of the sales of the Palm Beach and Austin papers, Cox is reorganizing the central copy desk operation (this supposedly was in the works anyway, but the plan has been changed with the remaining Cox newspapers in Dayton and Atlanta in mind).

Details are complicated, but the gist of the situation is that once the desk is reorganized and people are laid off, three design and four copy-editing positions will remain at the central desk in West Palm Beach. This is out of a current staff of approximately 35 -- news, sports, about 15 part-timers and 20 full-timers. It will take some time for the reorganization to take place, and layoffs aren't expected until mid-February (although people reportedly will learn their fates much earlier, probably just before Christmas). Additionally, there will be a crew of page "finishers" -- current employees of the home papers designated by each newsroom -- to write headlines and cutlines, trim stories to fit, and proof and approve pages. The remaining copy editors will serve as spell-checkers, fact-checkers and grammarians.

And once Palm Beach and Austin are sold -- date still unknown -- the West Palm Beach central desk will be shut down and the seven-person skeleton crew will go away. Whatever copy desks these papers have after that will be determined by the new owners.

The Dayton central desk that currently produces news pages for Dayton and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution will emerge mostly unscathed and will continue to serve as the central desk after the sales.

In any case, major bloodletting is on the horizon in West Palm Beach.

Wow. Talk about cutting to the bone. That's one place I'd sure be bailing on were I in that situation.

 

[Bronco77]

This sounds like a disaster. Somebody who may be a suit may have to be the "finishers" at papers. Who else will finish?

I've heard these jobs will be handled by current members of the teams that serve as liaisons between the newsrooms and the central copy desks.

Many of these folks used to work on copy desks and have headline- and cutline-writing in their backgrounds, but they have not done these things in the five-plus years since the central copy desks were introduced.

It's conceivable that this could work out. It's also conceivable that you'll see a lot of headline busts and cutlines that simply rehash what the wire services provide and/or state the obvious. But management probably doesn't care as long as it saves money.

 

[LanceyHoward]

I've heard these jobs will be handled by current members of the teams that serve as liaisons between the newsrooms and the central copy desks.

Many of these folks used to work on copy desks and have headline- and cutline-writing in their backgrounds, but they have not done these things in the five-plus years since the central copy desks were introduced.

It's conceivable that this could work out. It's also conceivable that you'll see a lot of headline busts and cutlines that simply rehash what the wire services provide and/or state the obvious. But management probably doesn't care as long as it saves money.

I am quite sure that Cox does not care how it works out. Cox believes the next buyer will move all these functions to their own central facility. In fact, I bet the sale is close to done and as part of the deal Cox is responsible for the severance costs for these folks.

 

[Fran Curci]

Actually, some manager at Cox will say that this will improve the product by making everyone more focused. I imagine the current team of liaisons working between the newsroom and the copy desk can write headlines and cutlines and cut stories --- but don't they already have a bunch of duties?

 

[Bronco77]

In fact, I bet the sale is close to done

The industry-wide buzz is that Hearst will end up with the Austin paper and that the sale could be announced sooner rather than later (probably early 2018). Makes sense with Hearst owning the papers in Houston and San Antonio and already printing Austin.

Speculation down here on the most likely Palm Beach Post buyers, in no particular order: Gannett (linked with Treasure Coast Newspapers and Florida Today to the north); Tronc (paired with the Sun Sentinel); or one of the billionaires from the town of Palm Beach, who might or might not use the paper as political soapbox.

In fact, I've got my own darkhorse buyer somewhat along the lines of the latter scenario: NewsMax, the booming conservative media company just down the road in Boca Raton. I'm not sure Chris Ruddy, who runs NewsMax, is wealthy enough on his own to buy the Post, but the company probably is.

 

[Raiders]

Actually, some manager at Cox will say that this will improve the product by making everyone more focused. I imagine the current team of liaisons working between the newsroom and the copy desk can write headlines and cutlines and cut stories --- but don't they already have a bunch of duties?

Actually, the guy who ran the news copy desks from his office in Dayton dropped dead of a heart attack/stroke/whatever about two months ago, so he probably won't offer up a quote. And the liaison staffers, which Cox calls bridge editors, are all talented, experienced editors, so they can handle the word stuff, but the extra workload will be tough.

 

[Fran Curci]

Raiders: I said "some manager." And you certainly have a nice way of describing the death of a fellow journalist. The person who passed away undoubtedly worked his ass off with limited resources to try to make it a success while the people above him said, "Do more with less." And like I said, these "bridge editors" are probably pretty busy now.

 

[wicked]

Speculation down here on the most likely Palm Beach Post buyers, in no particular order: Gannett (linked with Treasure Coast Newspapers and Florida Today to the north); Tronc (paired with the Sun Sentinel); or one of the billionaires from the town of Palm Beach, who might or might not use the paper as political soapbox.

The newsroom will be set up in the servants' quarters here: