Colleges editor, Orlando Sentinel

From afar, it's hard to see many synergies between Sun Sentinel and Orlando Sentinel. The big college football programs, sure. Heat? Not really. Orlando will still be a lot more interested in the Magic. Major League Baseball? Not much Marlins interest in Orlando. High schools? Obviously no overlap. Hockey? None. NFL? Maybe some interest in Dolphins in Orlando; no interest in Bucs to speak of in South Florida.

 

They've been sharing for well over a decade. Orlando would handle the Bucs, UF, Magic, FSU and the South Florida would handle the pro teams down there and UM. Just common sense stuff. I think they're sharing with St. Pete now as well, I think they swap Bucs coverage for Magic coverage or something like that.

 

Can't remember S-S running any Magic, Bucs stories when I was at 1HP, and why would they?

Charlotte editors supervise Raleigh reporters. No more doubleteaming beats. Charlotte guy covers Duke or NC State, can't remember which. Raleigh has the other, plus Carolina. Charlotte probably has Wake, but the Deacs are the stepchild in that four-member family.

Their shared setup run through Charlotte is one reason you see so much more Panthers coverage in the N&O, despite the fact Triangle readers don't care two Biakabutukas about the team. Or the Bobcats. Sharing NASCAR makes sense. Not doubling up beat writers on college gamers makes some sense, though Raleigh is in the heart of it, and Charlotte thinks of itself as too big for it.
ACC basketball is N&O's No. 1 interest, and the drop to No. 2 is significant. ACC probably is third in the Charlotte market behind Panthers and NASCAR.
Sure it's saved money, but it hasn't made either paper better.

 

I think it was mostly Gators, Noles and NASCAR from Orlando. I remembered seeing Chris Harry's Bucs coverage in there more than once.

 

The Orlando-Ft Lauderdale sports merger isn't all about content sharing. It's also another way to eliminate positions through that famous word called "synergy." For starters, you can have one sports editor instead of two, saving Tribune Co. at least $100K annually in salary and benefits. Once it's all said and done 3 or 4 other positions probalby will be cut as well, increasing the annual savings by an additional $200,000 or more.

Instead of two assistant sports editor-types managing college sports you could have one. Instead of two assignment editors for the pro teams, you could have one, and so on.

This isn't unprecedented for Tribune. Even now Orlando and South Florida share the same publisher -- he is based in Ft. Lauderdale -- and the same Director of Content (i.e. editor), who is based in Orlando. No doubt there will be a continued flattening of the overall sports departments at the Orlando Sentinel and Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, with all duplicative efforts being eliminated.

 

They can probably handle it through attrition. Three designers and one copy editor have fled Fort Lauderdale in the past few weeks.

 

Where'd they go?

 

I'm a little surprised this job is still open a month after posting, given that it's a colleges job and they'll be a month into football season (at best) before the new editor is on board.

 

The pipeline -- and by that I do mean Facebook -- says that this job has been filled by Todd Adams of Fayetteville.

 

Congrats to Todd! From someone who knows, this is a fantastic hire. Over the past couple years, Todd reinvigorated my love for the business and made me a better writer and reporter. He's tremendous at coming up with and sharpening ideas. His energy and vision will certainly be missed in the 'Ville.