Posted on 08/08/2007 4:01:27 PM PDT by abb
The Herald-Tribune is revamping its features sections and consolidating its Venice, North Port, Englewood and Port Charlotte operations, a move that will result in an unspecified number of layoffs.
The media company will drop the daily Florida West section, adding more focused tabloid-size sections resembling Ticket.
The consolidated southern operations will be based in Venice.
With the consolidation, the Herald-Tribune will start new interactive Web sites geared toward allowing the public to share their news, photos and videos.
Newspapers around the country have been trimming their print reports and expanding their Web coverage. In coastal Florida, that trend toward digital coverage has been hastened by a slump in the real estate market that has cut advertising revenue.
"The local economy is sure to recover, enabling advertisers to again increase their advertising spending," said Herald-Tribune Publisher Diane McFarlin.
"However, we must continue to adapt our business model in response to the growing reliance on new media."
McFarlin emphasized that the Herald-Tribune would continue to produce daily zoned editions in each of the southern markets and would maintain its offices there.
"Because our customers increasingly interact with us by phone or e-mail, the North Port and Englewood offices will be closed to the public," McFarlin said. "Customers who prefer to visit us in person can do so at our Venice and Port Charlotte locations."
The company has not yet set a date for the changes in feature coverage, but McFarlin said the launch would likely happen by the fall.
"We want to try a new approach," she said. "People are consuming information in new and different ways and we are trying to adapt to that by doing more on the Web and doing more to appeal to special interests.
"At the same time, we are forced by economic conditions to seek operational efficiencies. This accomplishes that as well, by saving on some newsprint and on production costs."
The new sections will emerge over time, starting with Health & Fitness on Tuesdays and Food & Wine on Wednesdays.
Arts and entertainment reviews and people news, including Marjorie North's column, will move to the B sections.
The syndicated features that appear in Florida West -- comics, crossword puzzles and advice columns -- will move to the back of the business section.
As part of the creation of the southern region, the Herald-Tribune plans to launch two community Web sites for North Port and for Port Charlotte.
ping
Finally
I know this is a dumb question, since this is one of Pinch’s newspapers, but is the HS a typical moonbat left-wing rag? I confess to not visiting the website very much.
It definitely is a child of the parent
Ummm! More mediot road kill for dinner!
Mmmm! These pinko liberal mediots are really great eating! Rip off a chunk of editor for me!
And, this from the Lakeland Ledger: http://www.theledger.com/article/20070805/NEWS/708050463/-1/xml
The Ledger is a NYT newspaper and is apparently taking orders from its parent to downsize its staff and resize (get smaller) the newspaper. At least with its new size, it doesn’t take any folding to cover the bottom of the bird cage and I can wrap smaller fish without those bulky folds.
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