Tampa Tribune Cuts Down Sections; How Will Readers React?

I've just seen the Tampa Tribune's note today about how the paper will be reconfigured, so I'm not yet sure what to make of it.

It's always delicate territory talking about changes at a competitor, especially when your own organization has implemented its own newsprint-saving changes in the past and may yet create more.

Still, the Tribune's editor's note this morning buries the lede a bit, just as our own communications with readers about slimming the paper emphasized all the new stuff we were doing while de-emphasizing all the old stuff we were not.

What the Tribune is not doing, it seems, is publishing a features section on Mondays and Tuesdays. Daily comics have moved to the front of the classified section, while the features section BayLife becomes a tabloid Wednesday through Saturday. The Tribune's success with advertising in its Saturday health tab 4You hasn't gone unnoticed over here; apparently, they're going to try expanding that success to their features sections.

Their Sunday features section will combine Travel and BayLife in a section called Getaway, TV critic Walt Belcher's column goes four days a week and runs inside the paper's first section (called Nation/World) behind the front page. Its Monday business section will also end, with business news placed inside the Nation/World section. And daily TV listings also go away, available in print only on Sundays in the traditional TV guide booklet.

Newspapers across the country are implementing similar changes, striving to save newsprint, possibly reduce printing costs and shave down staff. I haven't spoken with anyone at the Tribune, so I don't know which, if any, of these issues spurred their changes.

The open question, of source, is how readers will feel about paying the same amount for a newspaper which is going to be smaller and offer less material. The answer to that question, might also answer some worrisome questions about the future of our entire industry.

What do YOU think?

Here's a sample of the letter some of the Tribune's advertising clients are getting:

Dear Client:

You will see changes in our newspaper beginning Monday, March 3.

*Monday – A Monday Business report will publish within Main News.  The Business and Careers section has been discontinued. 

*Monday – BayLife has been eliminated.  The comics will be part of the Classified section. 

*Tuesday – No BayLife, comics will publish in the Classified section

*Wednesday – Flavor has been redesigned as a tab and the comics will publish with Classified.

*Thursday – At Home (formerly a Saturday feature section) will publish as a tab and the comics will be in Classified

*Friday – We are eliminating the Baylife Insider pages from Friday Extra.  Comics will publish with the Classifieds.

*Saturday – 4 You will be our feature section and the comics will publish with Classified.

*Sunday – Baylife and Travel will be combined into one broadsheet section. 

Movie times will be listed as follows:

1.       In The Tampa Tribune and Sunbelt News (Community News sections) within the Tribune on Wednesday and Saturday

2.       In Friday Extra

3.       In Sunday Baylife

Comments

[Eric Deggans]

Thanks for the update Jimmy...

[Jimmy Delach]

Clarification: "Beetle Bailey" is still in the daily Tribune comics section. "Sally Forth" was discontinued. "Lio" remains dropped.

[Jimmy Delach]

As far as the Tribune comics issue is concerned here are the affected ones:

1.) "For Better or For Worse" has been moved from the color comics page to the black-and-white page.

2.) The Tribune dropped "Lio" and "Beetle Bailey".

[Jimmy Delach]

The comics are moving to the Classifieds. In my 20 years of reading comics from both the Times and the Tribune (the Times more often where my family still has a subscription) this harkens back to my early years of reading. Remember the old "Classified & Comics" section? How long did the Trib run that?

[edward]

Basic of journalism is to talk to someone you are writing about, or at least make the effort....avoids mistakes and libel problems. You should have made the effort to talk to the Trib.
Otherwise, they are gutting the Tribune so much that it's hardly worth picking up anymore.

[Oscar]

Living in Polk county, the Trib is the only Tampa paper we can have delivered or buy at the store. I would prefer the Times, but it doesn't come out this way.

[Pick Up A Phone And Dial, Eric]

"I haven't spoken with anyone at the Tribune, so I don't know which, if any, of these issues spurred their changes."

C'mon, dude. That's weaksauce.

[Stu]

fred? is this fred, our god?

plenty of typos and grammar issues in this blog.

Posted by: fred | March 03, 2008 at 03:10 PM

[dreaming]

doesnt leave much, does it? of course, how about cutting the price back to 10 cents? about what it's worth.

the sad reality is the only content that's worth even 2 cents is the local news in metro. the rest is widely available in better form elsewhere.

[Jim]

Pretty soon the Trib won't be much more than a few pages.

Very sad trend for newspapers in general. Newspapers have the depth that TV and the Internet often don't provide.

But the loss of readers will only accelerate with cutbacks at newspapers. I mean, what's the incentive for having a subscription if a newspaper reduces its content??

[Chuck Welch]

There are plenty of typos in the world. Consider them practice for your Strunk & White reading.

I read the paper versions Trib & the Ledger everyday. Starting this week, I'm adding the Sentinel & the Times to my daily online reading. Soon, I'll move to the online versions for all four papers.

The gist of what I think: These changes are expected as Americans continue to leave newspapers in the dust. On the other hand, I love newspapers. Still, I'm leaving the dead tree versions behind and praying every newspaper editor doesn't start to think he (or she) is running a video news operation.

[drinklime]

i dont buy newspapers

[fred]

plenty of typos and grammar issues in this blog.