For years and years, the St. Petersburg Times has tried to get into Hillsborough County, and the Tampa Tribune pushed to get into Pinellas. Neither made much headway – Pinellas residents don’t want to read a publication named, based in, and all about Tampa. Likewise, Hillsborough residents had little to do with something named “St. Petersburg.”
The last 10 or fifteen years have seen both papers reach an acceptance of sorts. They don’t like each other at all, and fight tooth and nail for Pasco County, but each paper generally conceded Pinellas and Hillsborough to the resident newspaper. It looks as if that “cold war” era has come to an end.
With the St. Pete Times re-branding tampabay.com and the push to print tbt* daily in Tampa, it looks like the Newspaper Wars of old are heating up again. In addition to giving free hot dogs and cookies last week, the tbt* music fest in Gaslight Square also attracted hawkers from the Tribune, who stood around giving free copies of that paper. The whole thing did have a “skirmish in the park” sort of vibe to it. Some even said the dueling hawkers looked like soldiers.
The Times Eric Deggans (Media in the Mirror) says tbt* going daily was the first volley in the new battle, but John and I think the first volley in this new battle was fired when the Ice Palace became the St. Pete Times Forum. Consider:
“This deal demonstrates that the Tampa Bay area is growing steadily into a single metro region, and that the St. Petersburg Times is the premier newspaper for that region,” said Paul Tash, editor and president of the Times.
The Times wants to call the new daily the “Tampa Bay Times.” But the Tribune kept the rights to use “Tampa Times,” and sued the St. Pete Times for using “Tampa Bay Times.” That the Tribune managed to keep the new name from being prominently displayed on that product is the only thing they can claim to have won, and that battle is long from over. In fact, the Times has now counter-sued.
Writing for Front Page Florida, former Tribune reporter and editor Joe Registrano makes a good point for the Times aggressive use of “Tampa Bay Times”
…play around with the words “Bay,” and “Tampa Bay” to get folks feeling that we’re all living and working in the same city. After all, it’s the Tampa Bay Bucs, The Tampa Bay Lightning, and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Why not the Tampa Bay Times?
Why not? Hell, why not the Tampa Bay Storm playing in the Tampa Bay Times Arena in downtown Tampa? Why not the Tampa Bay Times building in north downtown?
And with those sports teams as virtual advertisements for the area, I can imagine Joe Shmoe in Denver googling Tampa Bay: Currently the Trib’s TBO.com comes up first, then VisitTampaBay.com, and the Times’ Tampabay.com is third. Even though it’s third, that’s a great url to own, and it will be interesting to see if TBO can maintain that top position in google.
Meanwhile, the Tribune continues to piss off their existing customers. Seminole Heights blogger David Banghart is just beside himself that the Trib killed the “Central Tampa” section, and stuffed the neighborhood’s news in with the “South Tampa” section. Of course, the Times was right on the spot to offer great subscription deals to those disgruntled residents. The Trib has now said they will bring back the Central Tampa section (look for it in early April), but Banghart maintains he will buy the Times from now on. Of course, he wants the Times to cover Seminole Heights better than they do, suggesting the Times hire away Tribune reporter Kathy Steele.
Which brings us to this.
Howard Troxler, Tom Scherberger and Paul Wilborn all worked for the Tampa Tribune before being lured over to the St. Pete Times. The latest to join them is Ben Montgomery (who has a group blog about the survival of newspapers). In a conversation with the Weekly Planet, Montgomery says the Times is a place “where getting better at doing journalism is a priority”
So, from marketing “Tampa Bay” on everything they can, reaching out to upset readers in Hillsborough, and taking talent from the competition on a regular basis, The St. Petersburg Times are trying like hell to get a foot in the door. The Tribune has no choice but to win this suit to keep the Times from using “Tampa Bay Times,” otherwise we may eventually be a one newspaper town.
David Pinero
4 years ago
What’s a newspaper?
Jeff
4 years ago
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Perfect response.
Laura
4 years ago
I associate “Times” with the St. Pete Times. Why not use another name altogether? TampaBay Daily, Journal, Sentinel… all of those names come to mind. I’m sure their site readers could come up with other examples, since their staff can’t seem to find any other versions.
These turf wars do nothing for the community at large in terms of uniting it.
For the record, I still think the Ice Palace was the best name. The St. Pete Times Forum reminds me of a group of old whitebread bankers sitting around a table and smoking cigars and drinking scotch.
Gax
4 years ago
The Trib still has a better sports section that the Times.
But honestly, why are they still fighting over their dead-tree business? If the Times (or TBT or whatever) wants to get ahead how about putting the effort into making your website better. The “new” TBO is worse than the old one. The time is right to get a new slick site going.
Content, content, content. Don’t just reprint your articles. Give us breaking news, a good local search, and a ton of other things I could go into.
Josh Hallett
4 years ago
Of course if every blogger in the area linked the words ‘Tampa Bay’ to SoF then some of those Google rankings would change real fast
Anon
4 years ago
Interesting. TBT is primarily a daily free regurgitation of the SPTimes.
The Trib (more accurately Media General) starts a free Hispanic tab and Web site that includes local content that you won’t find in the daily newspaper.
And TBT is the more notable entry?
You might want to revisit this battle in about 15 years when we become Miami-Dade north.
Then again, maybe the Times will come out with Tampa Bay Centro. It’s anyone’s guess.
Wayne Garcia
4 years ago
David Pinero wins my “Best Three Words Describing the State of Journalism” Award.
tommy
4 years ago
It’s certainly not that tbt is notable. It’s the use of “Tampa Bay” that makes it so interesting. But Tampa Bay Centro? Good thinking!
John
4 years ago
What do you guys think of the waste of money the Tribune/Media general has been doing to make up for it’s lack of regional offices in the area? They bought the local free newspaper company — I forgot the name — and started running newspapers such as the Suncoast News. If you get a free newspaper tossed on your driveway twice a week – it’s likely Media general’s sad attempt at seeming more local/personal.
Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog » war claims victim?
3 years ago
[...] Ok, so take that “consultant” gig, along with the odd wording of the press release (notice no comment from Media General’s chairman), and throw in the fact that his resume is stacked with smaller metro newspapers (no mention of online media there, either), and that might lead one to consider that this “retirement” may not have been Gil’s idea. Seems to me he might be the latest casualty in the newspaper wars. [...]
Liz Barney
3 years ago
Hi. I am doing some research on the Tampa Bay area newspaper battle. I am wondering if any of you might be willing to speak with me. If so, pls email me at: liz@eaglecapital.net or call me: 212-692-6362. Weird request, I know, but I would love to chat. Thanks!
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[...] The Tampa Tribune and St. Pete Times have been fighting over the use of the name “Tampa Bay Times” for a while. This week, both sides reached an agreement on the use of the moniker. Since the two papers were able to work it out without resorting to any further lawsuits, we’ll let them each tell their favorite parts of the story… [...]
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1 year ago
[...] and a half years ago, I wrote about the St. Pete Times taking over the entire area from the Tampa Tribune. I noted that over the years, the Times simply took the talented writers away from them: Howard [...]