Big Changes Coming for the St. Petersburg Times on May 19 (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

That's when the paper will implement changes designed to emphasize material readers have told us they value most in the weekday paper and bring down costs. The big changes: Floridian, our daily features section, will publish just on Sundays, while our business section will merge with our B section metro news in a new section. TV listings, comics, Dear Abby, crossword puzzles and the more popular syndicated elements of our features section will move to a new section called BayLink.

As always, when circumstances compel the Times to reimagine the newspaper, executives have tried to husband resources while emphasizing elements readers will like in new ways. So there are new features added to the Taste section -- including a weekly restaurant review -- a return of the color weather map, four new comics and the move of our daily entertainment report, The Juice, to the inside front page of our A section, among other changes. The Sunday paper, where much of our readership's attention falls, will change little.

Tim_espapers_2 Leaders here are hoping BayLink -- which combines classifieds, syndicated features and news content in a section they're imagining as newspaper's closest thing to a shopping mall -- will be seen an innovative effort at collecting material readers want in one section.

Among the big elements which will disappear: traditional stock listings (some will be available in a new format; many papers have eliminated them, because the information is so readily available online), the Road Test column, the Parenting column (though more parenting coverage is planned, both online and for the paper), the Working section and the Sew Simple feature.

There will also be a half-page in Sunday Floridian featuring much of the material featured in this space, called, surprisingly enough, The Feed.

Stpetetimesbuilding Top staffers at the paper have been working on these changes for months, with an eye toward creating a more streamlined paper during the week, eliminating material readers may not value so much, and, in the midst of a serious recession, cutting costs. It is the second time we've redesigned the paper since 2006 -- coming close on the heels of the Tampa Tribune's reconfiguration in March -- and the open question is always how will readers react to paying the same price for a smaller product?

Our executive editor Neil Brown will introduce readers to these changes with a column on Sunday, and there will be stories in the paper each day next week outlining how each section will change and where people can find the material they've come to enjoy.

It's a tough spot for a media critic to negotiate; I'm not an ombudsman with a contract guaranteeing employment no matter what I write, so I've tried to respect the organization's need to plan while pulling together this blog post to give anyone who reads this space early notice on the coming changes.

Timeslogo2 I've written before in this space about how the Times' business model ensuring our independence -- the fact that we're owned by a non-profit, the Poynter Institute -- has given us a bit more time to deal with the financial forces that are dramatically transforming other newspapers. But we're not insulated from the pressure, and these changes are evidence of that fact.

http://cronkite.asu.edu/mcguireblog/?p=75

Newspaper circulation leaders need to make their own sandwiches

Speech to Northwest International Circulation Executives

Vancouver, WA. May 6, 2008

By Tim J. McGuire

Frank Russell Chair for the Business of Journalism

Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Arizona State University

©Tim J. McGuire. May 2008

One of the things I like to do when I take a speaking gig like this one is to ask what the people who invited me hope I will say.

All Eileen Widdison needed was an invitation. Her keyboard must have exploded when I inquired. She said she sure did have thoughts on what I should talk about! With all the colorfulness and certainty you have come to expect of Eileen she responded with these fiery words:

“I’m tired of hearing about how we’re slated for death. I’m sick to death of people telling me that video is the answer. We’ve watched the buyouts, the layoffs, the wailing, whining and complaining. I’m starting to get numb. Throw me a lifeline! Is there a future for us poor print dweebs? Is it intensely local?

Eileen continued: Do you have something in your bag of tricks which would give us some hope? You’re going to start the conference off. Could you attempt the bootstrap pep talk? Could you try to remind us that we’re worthy and venerable and credible? The circulators need to hear from someone of your experience and stature that we have meaning.”

I think I have something to say on the subject of the future, but we have to get something straight right here at the beginning. Please understand I say this with all the respect and affection I can muster for my new phone friend Eileen and for all of you.

Find your own stinkin’ lifeline!

Build your own damn hope!

Discover your own worthiness.

Stop waiting for it to be conferred on you by an aging, retired newsman or by your confused, beyond-desperate corporate owners, or by a besieged management team which has watched its own individual personal worth go up in so much digital vapor because they really don’t know up from down in this revolutionary moment.

Pardon me the First Testament of the Bible references, but they seem so obvious. Too many of us in the newspaper industry are in the midst of a futile search for a Messiah.

Others are intent on holding our breath until we return to the wonders and safety of Egypt or, in this case, yesterday.

Others think they are so certain of the future they are worshipping false idols and making fools of themselves.

I do not say any of this to be cruel. I say it because victimhood is ugly and unbecoming.

I say it because critics of newspapers are being too simplistic.

I say it because newspaper people are wallowing in self-pity and wishing for a return to a yesterday that is gone. It will never exist again.

I say it because every human being has a vital say in his or her own future and you’d never know that talking with too many newspaper folks.

I think there is a media future for newspaper folk even if it looks a lot different.

I think bright, entrepreneurial people are going to create that future.

The victims are going to get run over!

snip

We also gave up taking the paper about 15 years ago

Walked out my door last Sunday morning and found the Pravda West in my drive way. I thought the paper boy missed, but all the driveways had one!

I literally haven't picked up a newspaper in years, but thought I take a look and see if I was missing anything.

I did enjoy the comics section, "The Parade" was beyond stupid.

I saved the editorial page for last and I wasn't disappointed: liberal hand wringing with almost no conservative viewpoint at all.

It's like the St.Pete Times doesn't know conservatives live in the Tampa / St. Pete area

Oh, well. Their downtown building will make for fine condo's in the future

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