Two more longtime area journalists lose jobs at WFTS-Ch. 28 and Creative Loafing

Posting will be light the rest of this week -- I'm taking the family to Disney World for my daughter's 5th birthday.

But I couldn't hit the road before noting the departure of two more longtime journalists, both seemingly victims of long tenures and presumably substantial salaries in a deteriorating media environment.

St. Pete Times sports media expert Tom Jones reported yesterday that Al Keck, top sports guy at ABC Action News and at CBS affiliate WTSP-Ch. 10 before that, would not have his contract renewed. The news seems another blow to the rapidly deteriorating state of local TV sports, where WFLA-Ch.8 has seen its regular on-air staff clipped from three anchors to one and WTSP's top sports anchor quit with no new job arranged.

Keck, who left WTSP in 2001 when his contract wasn't renewed, went to ABC Action News that same year.

On the same day, news surfaced that Eric Snider, longtime editor and music writer at Creative Loafing's Tampa newspaper, had been laid off. Snider, who was once music critic at the St. Petersburg Times, was always a fun companion for me at area concerts when I came to the Times in 1995 as its music critic.

He's a raconteur with a sharp writing talent and a good ear for great music; the conversation got so good at shows, I had to be careful about missing too much of the actual concert.

In a blog post announcing the move, Loafing's Tampa editor David Warner expressed his regret over Snider's layoff while maintaining confidence in the newspaper's future and confirming the already slim staff lost four people this year. A judge has set an Aug. 25 date for auction of the in-bankruptcy newspaper chain, following negotiations where its biggest creditor wrote down a $31 million debt to $12 million.

Current publisher Ben Eason is expected to lead one group seeking control of the company, while the biggest creditor, Atalaya Capital Management, will likely be the other. Atalaya has already made a "stalking horse" offer of $2 million.

One hopes the staff won't be cut too much more by then.

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Comments

[Ron]

I have to sadly agree that local newspapers are a dying breed. I used to take the Tampa and St Pete papers until the layoffs and cutbacks at the Tribune left nothing worth reading in it. And the Times seems to be smaller every day. Maybe I'll be forced to return to my childhood and take The Weekly Reader for lack of an alternative paper.

[Ron]

I have to sadly agree that local newspapers are a dying breed. I used to take the Tampa and St Pete papers until the layoffs and cutbacks at the Tribune left nothing worth reading in it. And the Times seems to be smaller every day. Maybe I'll be forced to return to my childhood and take The Weekly Reader for lack of an alternative paper.

[no knock]

Is there a chance that only WTVT will be doing news three years from now? Channel 28 and 10 Connects are irrelevant. Channel 8 is evolving into another life form. I think what we are seeing with the newspaper business is coming to local tv. many of these stations will scale back and local news that we have known for generations will have a much different template. So long Gannett and Scripps, your community deserved so much better than you gave. Your fate is now determined by your own mistakes.

[drinklime]

this is what happens when you have a bunch of MBA idiots running things

[Lin Young]

Media outlets are still laying off their best talent, which basically guts their product.

But I have noticed two things that might signal media outlets might regret booting their best talent out the door.

The first is that Poynter Institute, parent company of the St. Petersburg Times, offered a Webinar on July 9 on how to get the best work out of the New Millennial generation of young workers. Apparently this group, also known as Gen Y, the Internet Generation and Echo Boomers, didn't arrive in the workforce with the work ethic and abilities inherent in the Baby Boomers - now being booted out of newsroom. Baby Boomers didn't require a lot of hand holding and close supervision. They just jumped in and got the work done, did it well and still do.

I don't know. Call me crazy, but it seems to me that one hard-working Baby Boomer is probably worth five employees who have to be heavily supervised to be half-way productive. It isn't just salary, it's the salary of having to have more supervisors, lost productivity and an inferior product that turns readers or viewers off.

I love the St. Petersburg Times. But I can now finish the newspaper in less than 10 minutes, I am still hungry for news and disgusted with poorly reported stories. I'm considering going with a seven-day New York Times subscription and cutting the St. Petersburg Times to Sunday.

The other thing I've noticed is that there are starting to be journalism jobs advertised in Florida again.

So, I think media outlets are nuts to get rid of the very staff members responsible for turning out a quality product. A media outlet's product is produced by its staff. If it has an inexperienced staff, the quality of its daily product will suffer. If quality decreases enough, that outlet will lose its customers.

Sad to hear about these two people being booted. Hope they find work somewhere else that will appreciate them. Preferably competitors to the places that let them go.

I don't even especially like sports and really don't follow it. But I used to watch a good bit of Al Keck's coverage, so that really says something about his abilities. If he can make sports interesting to someone like me, that is a major accomplishment that takes talent. Pure talent.

[philip booth]

What a travesty.

Eric is one of the area's most talented and most accomplished arts & entertainment writers. He's been covering music, and covering it well, longer than anyone else in the Tampa Bay area.

Unlike some other pop music critics, Eric has always gone beyond the pop ju dour and celebrity nonsense to dig into music that's more meaningful and has a longer shelf life than the hits of the day.

And, like the best critics, he has a wide range of interests - not just altrock, not just pop, not just hip-hop, not just classic rock, but all of those and more, including jazz, blues, Americana and world music.

That's an appropriate approach to music coverage. Why? Because readers who care about music, particularly the 40+ readers (you know, the ones who still buy newspapers?) want to read about more than the Jonas Brothers or Kanye West.

Eric's eclectic, insightful approach has been true of his writing going all the way back to his days at Music Magazine (where I first encountered Eric) and through his work as the pop critic at the St. Pete Times and CL. He's also done some great features for Jazziz magazine.

First Lance, then Wade and now Eric. ???

If there's a strategy afoot here, it has nothing to do with retaining top talent and providing quality content to readers.

It's disappointing that newspapers (daily and weekly papers) increasingly are placing such a low priority on hiring and keeping writers with experience and knowledge of their beats.

Yes, there are short-term savings to be had, when those positions aren't filled or are filled by less experienced, less capable journalists who can be had on the cheap.

For the long term, though, this hurts readers, and, ultimately, newspapers. It makes those papers more generic and less relevant to the lives of consumers.

Fewer readers, and the advertisers go away. No advertisers, and the papers sink.

Why is all this so hard to newspaper publishers and managers to grasp?

[GlennS.]

I've always enjoyed Eric Snyder's CD reviews, especially when he was discussing reissues of classic jazz. His enthusiastic writing has pointed me toward a lot of good music over the years.

Creative Loafing will not be the same.

[bulletinizer]

RIP