war claims victim?
Gil Thelen is “retiring” as publisher of the Tampa Tribune. He will now be a consultant for Trib’s online media. HUH? I wouldn’t say that the Trib has been on the cutting edge of anything technological, which is why their blogs… uh… um… can’t find their blogs…
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.
We can also speculate that this will prompt a shakeup of the entire newspaper, including a makeover of the product. Which is long overdue. The oldschool retro look is not really working. Reading Friday Extra is like reading a phone book. And rumors abound that Page 2A was slotted for changes soon anyway.
With the ongoing push of the St. Pete Times, obviously the Trib wants to remain pertinent. In order to do so, they have to do what it takes to get with the program. That all starts with changing the publisher.
Tags: citizens, newspapers, tampa
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March 28th, 2006 at 2:08 pm
Great eye. In “retirement” announces, there are always a few key things to look for, and they were present here. Like what you mentioned, the CEO of Media General was quiet (this is their largest newspaper, and the CEO has no thoughts on it?), and that the guy said it was months in the planning, which is code for “they told me this morning I had to go.”
March 28th, 2006 at 5:13 pm
Lies. Printed daily.
(You’d think someone would have given that the thumbs down back at the focus group stage.)
March 28th, 2006 at 7:21 pm
thelen was a ‘convergence’ proponent, i.e., merging the paper, tv and web. that was cutting edge 10 years ago, but web news has since taken over and tbo.com is now the weakest leg of the MG platform. but try telling that to anyone at MG. they think its the greatest web site on the planet.
March 28th, 2006 at 11:17 pm
Yeah … it’s sad that they were so far ahead a decade ago. But now they are still stuck 10 years ago.