According to Tallahassee Democrat senior writer Gerald Ensley, next month you will no longer be able to read the Tampa Tribune in print:
The Christian Science Monitor quit being a newspaper: It will publish online only. Reportedly, the Tampa Tribune will follow suit in January.
He doesn’t say who reported that.
And the Tribune issued a non-denial denial in an unusual way – they took out a full page advertisement in the printed edition of the Tampa Tribune. Here’s the text of the ad (emphasis is all theirs):
THE TAMPA TRIBUNE
IS HERE TO STAY.
THE HEART OF OUR COMMUNITY LIVES TRHOUGH THE NEWSPAPER YOU HOLD IN YOUR HANDS. WITH MORE THAN A CENTURY OF GREAT JOURNALISM DEFINING OUR SUCCESS WE ARE TAMPA’S #1 NEWSPAPER.
IT’S OUR RESPONSIBILITY AND OUR COMMITMENT TO PROVIDE YOU WITH THE KIND OF LOCAL NEWS AND INFORMATION THAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE IN YOUR COMMUNITY, SEVEN DAYS A WEEK.
THE PRESSES ARE RUNNING.
DON’T MISS AN EDITION.
THE TAMPA TRIBUNE
TAMPA’S #1 NEWSPAPER
This is obviously meant to ensure readers that the print edition is not going anywhere.
But we wonder if it is sorta like when the owner of a pro sports team says the head coach isn’t going to be fired, just two days before he’s canned.
Scott Gunsaullus
1 year ago
The ad in the trib is more likely an assurance to it’s advertisers. It’s time to start the Tribune death pool.
John
1 year ago
I wonder why the powers that be at the Media Center would be contemplating going online-only when they don’t even know how to promote their online product correctly?
The Carl
1 year ago
Janet Coats needs to step aside now and let somebody smarter (cough, Duke Maas, cough) run the paper. That ad is a joke and I bet it was her idea.
jason
1 year ago
My Florida studies prof is lamenting the fact that he feels the Times and the Trib won’t survive long. I think that regardless of whether the print editions will survive in the current formats the content is still going to be needed. Maybe it will be better without powerful editorial boards and corporate parents directing the mood of the paper. A google news type setup of hundreds of small sources each providing their own undirected content and read based on interest and popularity. It seems more egalitarian to me. If this format of news isn’t working should we really lament its passing?
jason
1 year ago
I hate that I used ‘lament’ twice in that post. Damn! I just did it again.
Rob
1 year ago
Good news. The Trib keeps shrinking and shrinking, perhaps it will disappear altogether.
Ed
1 year ago
Surprising that anyone noticed the ad as it was in the print paper. Ads are put in the web, they are not findable by the search engines. I would be more inclined to believe it if they had it on their website viewable to a national audience.
Chris
1 year ago
We canceled the Trib after they went to their current USAToday-wannabe format and canned all the writers who were worth reading. This is what happens when you have a newspaper owned by a corporation that doesn’t care about news. (Yes, I know, profit motive and capitalism and all that. But I wouldn’t buy a car from a company that wasn’t passionate about cars and just treated them like a source of money.)
Tino
1 year ago
I just subscribed to the Times (after letting my old subscription lapse) for 10 cents a day, 7 days a week. 10 cents!
I don’t even think that my grandparents were able to get a Sunday paper for 10 cents.
Clyde
1 year ago
The Tribune should just stop pretending to be a newspaper. Their future lies in becoming the voice of sports for Tampa Bay. Publish a daily sports paper that will, with the elimination of any real news, have the space to cover all the minutia of the sports business the public seems to demand. People who want to be informed about the world can read the Times.
Vinny Tafuro
1 year ago
As of 11:07 a.m. today the lead story on the Tampa Tribune website is still Fennelly’s column recaping the Buccaneer’s loss and a special on stolen holiday displays.
Bob
1 year ago
When a corporation is about to do something terrible, you can expect them to deny it until the very last day.
My friends who still have jobs at the Trib tell me that they come to work each day hoping the doors are open. It is a grim place to be these days — but then gallows humor has always been a newsroom staple.
I do hope the place survives in one form or another. Someone has to keep a watchful eye on the sleazy clowns who run Hillsborough County.
Rainman
1 year ago
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Tribune did go online only after the Super Bowl. Despite its troubles, though, it still has a print circulation of 200,000, which is hard to ignore. It’s that circulation that is still propping up its rapidly shrinking staff. An online only Tribune would have a dramatically smaller staff.
On another note, who at the Tallahassee Democrat let a story go through with such terrible sourcing? “Reportedly?” Is that the best he can do? Does that refer to the commenters on newspaper blogs?
John
1 year ago
you know, I want to complain specifically about media consolidation (and general corporate consolidation) here and point to Media General as one of the culprits in this. It’s why the Tampa Tribune and the Tribune Company newspaper group and other newspaper companies are in such disarray: they took on so much when times were good and hoped to ride out the bad times as the larger entity.
Firing people as a solution? That’s a last resort of the greedy who couldn’t get enough profit for their company. No ad reach was too much.
The idea of spinning off profitable divisions is dead in the water. GM would rather keep a profitable division in it’s corporate interests than shed payroll and benefits from the books and let someone else take care of it. That’s how they and other big big big corporations have operated.
In the end, too much consolidation leads to stagnation, atrophy and death. That’s what we’re seeing now with the economy. That’s what we’re seeing now with Media General and the Tribune’s death march. That’s what we’re seeing with other corporations crying for a bailout.
They took on too much. And they’ve collapsed under the weight of their size.
Anonymous
1 year ago
Ah, the Tribune’s going down, too much bad journalism over too many years = irrelevancy.
Anonymous
1 year ago
“Maybe it will be better without powerful editorial boards and corporate parents directing the mood of the paper.”
Maybe some of that conjecture would make sense if the Trib hadn’t laid off its editorial page editor and half the opinion staff in the last five months.
Say what you want about corporate, but generally editorial boards have no power in the governing of the papers they work for, and definitely not at the Trib.
First Amendment Advocate
1 year ago
Rob said: “Good news. The Trib keeps shrinking and shrinking, perhaps it will disappear altogether.”
I really don’t know why people aren’t outraged about the disappearance of the print edition (other than it’s “saving trees” – not a valid argument as today’s newsprint is mostly recycled). It’s this type of attitude that will lead to the disappearance of freedom and democracy (e.g. the so-called Patriot Act, NYC Mayor Bloomberg re-writing term limit laws to suit his selfish agenda).
I believe in the print edition like I believe in keeping my printed credit card statements: There’s a HARD RECORD that can’t be SPIKED with a keystroke or mouse-click. Hey, print out that text only story, or the one with the lo-res photo of your child scoring the winning touchdown and frame it on the wall – or better yet on your “digital picture frame! – BLECCH!
Ed
1 year ago
I am a supporter of blogging and community activism but we need full time journalists who are expected to do the research and work of keeping tabs on our many corrupt politicians in this town! Who else will pay for the necessary investigative journalism if we have TV for sound bites and rags online that print about Brittany Spears.
it can not be online because no one wants to pay for online news, there is no profit in real journalism then.
J Black
1 year ago
Hey, “The Carl,” it sounds like maybe you’ve worked for Janet Shandan Weaver Coats before! Only those of us who have had the displeasure of working under such an incompetent poser could comment on her lack of intelligence with such authority. And to think, she grosses $17,000 a month for the job she’s doing! Her newspaper is about as interesting as she is on a personal level — and by that, I mean boring, stale and dried up. Oh, and don’t forget heartless and hollow.
Bob Ross
1 year ago
There’s nothing gained by such bitterness, J Black. I was laid off 20 months ago and I still hope the paper survives. I never thought Janet was incompetent, and I certainly would not want to be in her shoes while the print business disintegrates, big salary or no. Yes, the Trib is but a sad shadow of a once decent paper, but you cannot blame her. If there are villains here, they are the corporate greedheads in Richmond, who would rather fire loyal workers than take a cut in their huge bonuses. But that’s still no reason to be nasty or resentful. Life goes on, don’cha know.
J Black
1 year ago
Bob: don’t mistake honesty for bitterness. I’ve never been laid off and I’ve known Janet (forgive me, it was Shadden, not Shandan) much longer than she’s been at Tampa. I know the suits in Richmond too; I had nothing but good experiences with the Bryan family in good ‘ole Virginny. Not everyone can say that, but they’re actually really great guys. You just have to remember that the only paper they care about is in Richmond.
As for calling the Trib a once decent paper, I’d have to disagree with that too. I always thought Janet and Tampa were evenly matched in every way.
Bob Ross
1 year ago
Boring, stale, dried up, heartless and hollow? Really? That is not honesty, pal, it’s cheap hostility. You have every right to say those things, but they are less than persuasive in the realm of logical argument.
J Black
1 year ago
Thank you for the “critic’s” review. I’ve never thought of blogs as a forum for logical debate. Maybe you have a point about the bitterness though; that is one thing I’ve known Janet to inspire in many folks over the past two decades. Hostile? Maybe. Janet certainly symbolizes much that is broken in newsroom upper management.
Lord, I haven’t even touched on her questionable judgement – proffessional, ethical and moral. And no, I don’t even know Rusty Coats’ aggrieved ex wife.
autismdad
1 year ago
When the forensics team dusts the knife handle sticking out of the Tribune’s back, the main prints they’ll find on it are those of Janet Coats. She spearheaded the disastrous redesign a couple of months ago that resulted in more than 2,000 irate reader responses and a thousand dropped subscriptions, virtually overnight. She clearly has no idea what the difference is between news and information. Nor does she have any rapport with the staff. Even with all the exceptional journalists who have been unceremoniously dumped during her tenure — Bob Ross and, ahem, me among them — there is talent to spare at that paper, if only they’re allowed to collect, organize and present NEWS — not “charticles” and stunted graphics and squibs and briefs. Janet once said to the newsroom, in a jarringly dysfunctional moment, that she loves newspapers more than she loves being a mother. “Maybe that sounds sick,” she hastily added when she realized what she’d said. This woman does not understand newspapers and certainly doesn’t love them. The employees at the Tribune knows the days are numbered for newspapers; like me, all they want is for the Tribune to die with dignity. That will never happen under Janet Coats. If all of us who’ve been laid off felt it was unavoidable in order to maintain the heart, soul and preservation of the Tribune, that’s one thing. But we’re victims of friendly fire — at Little Bighorn. Janet is more than an embarrassment or a blunderer; she is a cancer. Merry Christmas!
Sarasota Alum
1 year ago
Cancer — excellent word choice.
autismdad
1 year ago
If the St. Pete Times wanted to plant a mole to disrupt the Tribune, they could do little better than hire Janet Coats. One question that remains, though, is whether Coats is simply cold and incompetent, or whether she’s a shill for Media General’s brass. Regardless, when J Black alludes to the pestilence of Coats’ professional, ethical and moral judgment, all we who have worked with Coats can do is sadly agree. Quick quiz: How do you get laid off by the Tribune? Do your job well and loyally, ideally for many years, gain the affection and respect of your colleagues, and engage the citizens of the Tampa Bay area with your excellence. How do you get promoted by the Tribune? Have a career path strewn with failure, get a humiliating, public DUI conviction, have an inter-office affair, leave your family, engineer a devastating, self-destructive redesign of the paper, and earn the contempt of almost everyone who works for you. Thus the glory that is Janet Coats. I do strongly agree with First Amendment Advocate about the need for a proper newspaper in Tampa (as in any city, big or small). The fact that so many citizens seem apathetic about the likely dissolution of the Tribune is shocking. I constantly remind people that, even before getting guns! guns! guns! into the Constitution, the Founding Fathers made sure the press would be an integral part of our republic and our freedom. No newspaper is perfect. Look to many of the Trib’s endorsements over the years for proof of that. But its role in Tampa is vital, and the woeful TBO.com? I’ve known journalistic watchdogs; journalistic watchdogs were a friend of mine; and you, TBO, are no journalistic watchdog. There should be a hew and cry over the imminent demise of the Tribune. But so many people have been brainwashed by this insidious, absurd notion of “the liberal media” that they seem to welcome being thrust into that place of ignorance the Founding Fathers feared. If the Trib does fold, then all power to the St. Pete Times. And a sigh of sadness for all the fine people still trying to make the Trib worthwhile, as they toil in the cold and clammy shadow of Mrs. Coats.
J Black
1 year ago
Your words ring so true.
Janet has lied and reinvented her past for so long, I suspect she actually believes it all by now. She passed the same BS to this blog’s founder in a lengthy email interview not too long ago that she has been telling people for years. She also flirted with him in that strange way that she does when she’s cornered; I doubt she’s ever noticed that she does that because she has the same level of self awareness as that lampost over there.
Let me expand on what I alluded to earlier. I’ll start from the begining — almost — because frankly, if I had to rehash her “poor-me” Ooltewah, Tenn. stories, I’d actually gag.
She was a reporter in a little town in Texas working for an editor named Kathy who wanted Janet to report on some local governmental corruption. When I’ve heard Janet tell this story, she openly admits she didn’t have the stomach for this kind of reporting and claims she hid out in the library or something to avoid doing a confrontational interview.
There was some copy editing, I think, and a little paper in Stuart, Fla. Onto the Suffolk bureau of the Virginian Pilot in Norfolk. Who can remember what she covered there? Or any story she’s ever written; first-person, published accounts of being survivor of crime don’t count. I’m talking about anything involving reporting chops or narrative writing ability. All that mattered at the Pilot is that Janet won the affection of top editor Sandy Rowe (now at the Oregonian).
Janet rises through the ranks but leaves her mentor for a tempting copy editing job at the Miami Herald. That job lasted a few months. Then Janet returned to the Pilot, quickly rising to a DME job.
Flash forward a few years to Wichita, Kansas — a place Janet speaks so fondly about. She was the youngest ME at 30, or so the story goes. Ask her today and she’ll tell you she and her Public Journalism founding boss got along great. But that’s not the real story. There was an affair or sexual harassment — I’ve heard the story both ways. Somehow, she bought herself some time there on the way out the door and managed to hook up with Diane McFarlin at the ASNE women’s group. The Sarasota editor brought Janet to Florida as her ME — almost a lateral move.
Soon, McFarlin is promoted to publisher and Janet takes over as EE. A few years later after several staff turnovers and a few scandals, Janet leaves to join the Poynter Institute, a job with a tenure measuring in months.
Then, it’s off to the Tampa Trib. It is here that she gets involved with a married subordinate. Not sure about the timing, but it’s not a bad circumstantial case. Her marriage breaks up shortly after the DUI arrest because she calls her boyfriend before her husband. Janet spins this in the paper and in E&P as noble. Said she called into the paper first so it could have the scoop on her arrest, which later led to a conviction not for drunk driving, but for reckless driving. I think newspapers have done stories about how drunks getting plead down to reckless drives up all of our insurance rates, but maybe I’m wrong.
Usually I’d side with the camp who say even an enemy’s personal life is off-limits, but here, she’s brought it all to the workplace.
Soon, her divorce is filed. Later, her married subordinate’s divorce is filed. Hers was about to go to a trial — but a few days before her scheduled deposition, she settles the case and agrees to pay out the proverbial nose. Another subordinate from the Trib, Wendy Whitt, is on record as having been Janet’s witness at her final hearing.
That brings us up to her present dismantling of yet another newspaper’s staff.
Goodness, that was a long story. But one this writer and reporter has been waiting to see put together in one place. Lord knows Joe Strupp over E&P would never cast his old pal in such a light.
One more thing: this post is both honest and bitter.
The life expectancy of the daily Tampa Tribune | The Political Whore
1 year ago
[...] that I speak with expects) but because I thought I had missed it being verified. Sticks of Fire even picked it up. So I e-mailed the writer of the piece, the Democrat’s Gerald Ensley, about where this story [...]
Mike
1 year ago
How curious to hear these complaints from the Tribune. A couple of weeks ago, my wife called to cancel our oTribune subscription and was told by someone with a heavy Asian accent that many, many people had complained about the changes to the newspaper, and that things would return to normal within a week. We agreed to wait it out, but nothing ever changed. There’s nothing to read in it, at all. I called to cancel this week, and the operator (did they outsource this to India?) tried to talk me out of it, again. but the Tribune has lost all relevance to me. and now, it has lost its credibility.
Sharon P
1 year ago
Who are Janet Coats and Denise Palmer? No one I know has ever seen or met them – anywhere! Yet they presume to know what we want? They’re clueless! Bring back our old Tribune!!
Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog » Blog Archive » tampa tribune lashes out, promises no changes
1 year ago
[...] are fired up over at One Tribune Place these days. After rumors of the printed paper’s demise (exacerbated by people who deliver the St. Pete Times), Editor Janet Coats and President/Publisher [...]
krieg
1 year ago
there were scandals in sarasota before this?