More cutbacks coming at the Tampa Bay Times?

Is it possible that the Tribune outlives the almighty Times?

 

Yikes. That last line -- “if you have options, you should be exploring them because there’s no guarantee of where we’ll be in three months.” -- is true of anyone in the newspaper biz at this point, but to be told that by your company is scary as hell.

 

Don't know. That doesn't sound that out of whack in this climate. pro/college beats/preps/columnist or 2 and one GA/backup seems to be all anyone has anymore.

 

Seven reporters or a sports staff of seven?

 

Seven reporters sounds about right for these days.

 

When I became SE of The Clarion-Ledger in 2002 we had 18 full-time (a columnist, ASEs, copy editors, reporters, etc). We also had a full-time Scoreboard/statistics editor who was in charge of the part-time crew that took scores statewide. The part-time crew had about 15 on the list and it wasn't unusual to have at least 12 of them in there on Friday nights during football and basketball season. Zack can probably answer this better than I can now, since they've had a lot of changes in the year since I left the CL, but I think they're down to about 5-6 full-time now, with no copy editors, and a few part-timers.

 

I remember that when the sports editor in Cincinnati left (Barry ?)it was determined on these boards the Enquirer had eight, and that market has both the Reds and Bengals. And I have not read the Sacramento Bee lately but they had a Kings writer, an East Bay sports guy, a 49'ers beat guy, two prep writers, a columnist and no editor.

Given what Gannett has already done in Cincinnati I was surprised Indianapolis was not cut sooner.

 

Pretty much what the editor of the OC Register told the staff in early June:
"If anyone here has ever had any inkling at all of leaving the Register, I strongly advise you to do it now."

 

Yowza! That's crazy. We no longer have anyone other than the FT copy editors/designers to do the scoreboard and take prep calls. Just last spring/summer we had four PT people alternating on that.

 

Re: "Is it possible that the Tribune outlives the almighty Times?"

That is very much a topic of conversation at play these days. I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility.

The Tribune has already gone through years of cuts and is down to the bone. It has no lingering debt, following its fire sale purchase by Revolution. Reportedly, they're in the black these days, too. How much longer, nobody knows, but they've done a better job of preparing for an all-digital existence than the Times, in my observation.

The Times, on the other hand, is shedding offices, parking lots and staff in an effort to find cash, with a huge debt looming that's owed to the corporate equivalent of a payday loan store. And with the exception of some decent blogs and a recent foray into video, their website is an afterthought.

Today's other bit of news is that the Times just sold its legendary Tramor cafeteria for cash to a beer house. Appropriate, somehow.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/historic-downtown-st-petersburg-cafeteria-to-reopen-as-beer-garden/2198349

 

This was a huge red flag when the news came out that they're on the hook for that $28 million loan by 2016. And it looks far more ominous now.