2 large Florida cities, 1 newspaper
The Tampa Tribune is the latest American newspaper to die. It was
121 years old.
The Tampa Bay Times, previously the St. Petersburg Times, borrowed
$13.3 million for the Tuesday purchase of the Tribune from Revolution Capital
Group.
Previously the Times took over printing the Tribune, just as the BJ
printing presses left the building so that first the Canton Repository and now
the Cleveland Plain Dealer prints the BJ.
The Times has news and advertising operations in downtown Tampa and
Riverview and has produced a Tampa edition since 1987.
At least 100 of the 265 Tribune employees will get pink slips and
60 days of pay.
The Tampa Tribune started in 1893 when Wallace Stovall moved his paper from
Bartow. It became a daily in 1895.
The Tribune was sold by Media General to California-based
Revolution Capital in 2012 for $9.5 million. Revolution Capital last July sold
the Tribune's headquarters in downtown Tampa for $17.75 million to South
Florida developers who plan an apartment complex.
The Times will continue the Tribune’s Centro, the Spanish language
weekly newspaper; Highlands Today, a daily newspaper serving Highlands County;
and the Suncoast News, weekly newspapers serving west Pasco and North Pinellas
counties.
The Times, one of the nation's few independent newspapers, is owned
by the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit school for journalists. When I worked at
the St. Pete Times in the 1960s, I was ushered into owner Nelson Poynter’s
luxurious and spacious office, a far cry from John Knight's corner office at the BJ, for his monthly welcome of new employees.
It felt like an audience with the Pope.
The Times began 131 years ago as the West Hillsborough Times out of
Dunedin. It changed its name to the Tampa Bay Times in 2012. The Times has won 12
Pulitzer Prizes.
The Times sold its downtown St.
Petersburg headquarters building at 490 First Ave. S to Convergent Capital
Partners and Denholtz Associates for $19 million to help pay for the Tribune
purchase.
This makes the Tampa Bay Times among the nation's 10 largest daily
newspapers and five largest Sunday papers (484,663 combined circulation).
As usual, the culprit is the owners’ lack of foresight when the
Internet was a baby. Instead of becoming a major player, newspaper baron shrugged it off as a harmless new toy.
Before they knew it, the Internet had sucked away advertising,
particularly Classifieds which were up to 40% of the newspapers’ income.
That lead to the cavalcade of downsizing and other draconian measures.