St. Pete Times and Miami Herald to develop a combined Tallahassee bureau in December

Just heard about this today, so I'm still digging up details. In the meantime, here's our executive editor's memo to the staff and the press release on it all.

Combined Times/Herald Tallahassee bureau

Author: Neil Brown

Body: To: Staff

November 3, 2008

Re: St. Pete Times and Miami Herald to launch combined Tallahassee bureau

I am pleased to announce a unique partnership between the St. Petersburg Times and The Miami Herald that will merge our Tallahassee-based staffs into a single statehouse bureau in order to provide a new level of depth, enterprise and aggressive coverage of the Capitol.

Over the summer we began conversations with the Herald about some combination of efforts to expand state coverage at a time when the Capitol press corps was shrinking because of the financial downturn. Our own circumstances have seen our bureau go from four full-time journalists to three. The Herald, faced with its own cost-cutting, took its staff from three to two.

We discussed how the two strongest newsrooms in Florida might work together in an area that has long been a focus of both newspapers. The more we talked the more sense it made to pursue a complete merger that would allow us to increase coverage in ways that neither organization could manage separately.

The plans call for our new operation to start in early December and to develop a simple decision-making arrangement (we know that will be the tricky part) that coordinates our daily and enterprise coverage. Eventually we hope to launch a joint state news website that will be the leading journalistic source on Florida politics and power.

The Times and Herald are compatible in their commitment to journalistic excellence and both have a long history of holding Florida officials to account.  In our talks, which involved our Tallahassee staffs and editors from both papers, we concluded that giving up journalistic competition with each other (there’s little competition on the business-side between the two companies) was an acceptable tradeoff for giving Florida residents more high quality journalism, particularly enterprise and investigative work. *

Click below for the release:

Nov. 3, 2008
St. Petersburg Times and The Miami Herald will join forces in Tallahassee
        In a collaboration believed to be the first of its kind, the Miami Herald and St. Petersburg Times will combine their Tallahassee staffs into a single bureau to expand news and enterprise coverage of Florida government, politics and issues of statewide importance.
           The joint effort is aimed at expanding the number and depth of stories, online and in print, with particular emphasis on enterprise reporting. The papers’ editors said they hope the combined bureau will build on the rich traditions of Florida journalism and also enable some new approaches to covering important issues and holding those in power accountable.
        Members of the two Tallahassee bureaus, the papers’ state staff and newsroom leadership developed the plans over the past three months in a series of meetings in St. Petersburg and Miami. The collaboration will begin in early December.
       “By joining the forces of the Miami Herald and the St. Petersburg Times we believe we can create a journalistic powerhouse to cover state issues and Florida government,” said Times Executive Editor Neil Brown. “Rather than standby as the Capitol Press corps shrinks and merely lament that there is less being written about the offices of power in Florida, we wanted to try a fresh, even bold, approach.” 
           “For years, The St. Petersburg Times and The Herald have watched one another across the state to see who was doing the best statehouse coverage,’ said Herald Executive Editor Anders Gyllenhaal. “We are very excited about seeing what can be done when we put our resources together.’’
        The editors began talks this summer, looking for new ways to expand coverage despite recent staff reductions. The more they talked, the more they were intrigued by the possibilities of such a robust partnership.
        The combined bureau will include six staff members. The bureau chiefs from each paper -- Mary Ellen Klas of the Herald and Steve Bousquet of the Times -- will alternate leadership responsibility, in consultation with the editors from each newsroom. Meanwhile the bureau will also include three other reporters ( Marc Caputo of the Herald and Alex Leary and Jennifer Liberto of the Times) and a full-time clerk will be hired by year’s end.
        The editors said that while the merger will mean an end to competition between the papers on statehouse news, they believe the advantages are extensive. They said the papers are complimentary on many fronts: Their primary focuses are on different parts of the state; they share a tradition of strong political coverage, explanatory work and investigative reporting; and they both have placed emphasis on statehouse coverage over many years.

Comments

[Tom In Atlanta]

The press release notes "They said the (two competing) papers are complimentary on many fronts..."

Eric, I'm all for getting along and complimenting whenever I can. All this bickering... when one could say something nice. My that's a nice dress. Love your hair.

Maybe the PR flack meant complementary, and the bureau will not be talking nice all day. I hope not. It's rough out there.

[Eric Deggans]

Wow...making a lot of assumptions there, Beltway. There's lots of reasons why a diversity of newspapers is a good idea.

Competition can keep newspapers' content sharp. A diversity of newspapers generally means more journalists working on a wider variety of stories.

Different publications with different audiences can also bring different stories: TBT's coverage is different from the times coverage which is different than the florida courier's coverage.

It's heartening to see newspaper companies coming up with new ideas to present coverage. But I don't think many news professionals want to see it progress to the point where there's only one newspaper covering a state large as Florida.

[beltwaybandit]

If a newspaper columnist or blogger argues that having a single newspaper per state is "frightening", you have to wonder why they would think that?

Newspapers are suposed to have solid reporters offering stories on important issues and topics of the day, with information gathered using multiple sources and reviewed by editors for accuracy and fairness. The products of that work are supposed to be in the "news holes".

They also are supposed to offer editorial commentary for thought by the readers. Those products are supposed to be clearly labeled "editorial" or "opinion".

If a single newspaper per state model creates fear in a current columnist or blogger at a newspaper, there must be a concern about accuracy and fairness in the news reporting being an issue.

How many times have we viewed solid reporitng in the NY Times, Wash Post, SP Times or the Wall Street Journal through jaded eyes because of an editorial stance the paper has?

How many times has that editorial position actually spilled into the news hole, a la the NY Post, NY Times or the SP Times?

Apparently, Eric Deggans fears it could happen should there be only one newspaper per state.

My acutal point in all of this is simply that newspapers have a self-absorbed view of their importance...that is a given.

They think their editorials are read by all and feared by all when in fact, few read their editorials and most who do fear not.

It is precisely this block-headed arrogance about their position in the world that has the newspaper industry where it is today...remember, the industry was going down BEFORE the economy tanked on them. Wall Street's problems onlymade things go down hill faster for newspapers.

Kudos for the management of the Miami and St. Pete papers to agree to invest jointly in coverage of the state capital, an important story source for all Floridians.

I've always wondered why the world needs 4 TV stations in Tampa racing to the same fires, accidents and other assorted "Breaking News". Imagine how much more efficient things would be if we had 50% fewer reporters, half as many helicopters, half as many anchors, etc. working on the same things. Make the consolidation and you could invest some of the saved dollars to expand other news coverage not currently being handled and put the rest back in shareholder pockets...or in the case of Channel 8, subsidizing the money-pit Tampa Tribune for a few extra months before pulling the plug (not a wise investment, but one I suspect Media General wouild try to do).

[dreaming]

actually, some states pretty much have one newspaper of any consequence already: r.i., maine, iowa, nevada, arizona. most of the mountain states.

endorsements? who cares. those mean nothing in the real world.

ownership? whoever has the deepest pockets.

the only people scared of one newspaper would be the staffs that may be laid off.

ap is one international org and seems to be a pretty good model. it makes a statewide paper seem small potatoes.

So goes democracy. Will the last person keeping an eye on our government please let out the cat and bring in the flag when you leave?

[Newzaroo]

No mention of money saved or jobs lost.

[Lucia]

If it weren't for the Bucs and the Rays and all the special sections and promotions the Times puts out, this newspaper would consist of a single sheet. Nice spin on how downsizing is actually a **good** thing for readers and news coverage!

[Eric Deggans]

Who would own that newspaper? What would their corporate priorities be? Would their endorsements be tantamount winning elections in some races?

I think the idea of one statewide paper might be frightening to a lot of people...

[dreaming]

i wonder if this isn't the precursor of what may save newspapers:

would it be crazy for each state to have one big newspaper? with a bunch of bureaus and editions? think about the cost savings!
the old days of newspaper "competition" seems kind of silly now anyways.
you could think of a single state newspaper like an ap bureau for the state.

[Jimbo]

And the Trib's Janet Weaver is convulsing on the floor of her office as we speak.