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tampa trib lays off 70

tommytommy permalink | categories: economy, newspapers, tampa
by tommy @ 3:46 pm

From the horse’s mouth:

The Tampa Tribune said today that it plans to lay off 70 employees as part of a cost reduction plan.

“Our decision to part with valued employees was difficult, and we very much appreciate the contributions of all those who will be affected by today’s announcement,” said Denise Palmer, president and publisher of The Tampa Tribune.

The paper currently has approximately 1,335 employees.

As part of its cost reduction strategy, Palmer said the paper planned to consolidate certain operations and outsource others.

Employees affected by the cost reduction plan will be informed over the next few days. Full-time employees will be offered severance packages, Palmer said.

The paper also plans several changes to the daily newspaper, including combining the Friday Baylife section into the Friday Extra section.

“The combined section will provide readers all the information they need to plan their weekend,” Palmer said.

On Sunday, the company plans to realign certain sections of the newspaper to improve ease of use and reduce costs, the publisher added.

I haven’t seen a Friday Extra in years.

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5 Responses to “tampa trib lays off 70”

  1. John Says:
    April 10th, 2007 at 4:09 pm

    I wrote this to the Trib editorial board:

    So the Tampa Tribune plans even more firings to strengthen the bottom line and make Media General (the Tribune’s parent company) and Wall Street happy.

    The Tribune has cut corners, cut costs, cut regional coverage and fallen into disrepair with thanks to repeated cost reduction attempts over the last 15 years and longer. There is a reason why I do not subscribe to the Tampa Tribune and it’s once again on display: Media General doesn’t care about the reader or the region, they care about the bottom line and so the reader suffers with thanks to it.

    Readership is down, coverage is down. The “less-is-more” adage only applies when there is ample content to begin with.

    They are always in “Cost reduction” mode. They purchased (why?!) community newspapers throughout the area a few years ago (the Suncoast News and Brandon Beacon among others, I believe) and what did they do? Took a twice a week FREE publication and cut publication to Saturday alone citing that “Readership is higher on Saturday”

    For a FREE newspaper they throw out on people’s lawns without asking?!?

  2. Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog » Blog Archive » trib moving newspaper online Says:
    April 10th, 2007 at 6:20 pm

    [...] Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog abouthelptampagift shopadvertise « tampa trib lays off 70 [...]

  3. C.W. Says:
    April 11th, 2007 at 11:27 am

    Haven’t seen Friday Extra in years, Tommy? Didn’t JGLB just play the Friday Extra Concert Series here lately? It really says a lot about society where we can’t be bothered to spend a measly quarter on a daily paper, yet we’ll blow at least $5 at Starbucks to use the WiFi there to read the news online. There must be some reference to this in the Book of Revelation. I’ll go log off and look it up.

  4. tommy Says:
    April 11th, 2007 at 1:09 pm

    The JGLB played the Friday Extra Concert Series just over one year ago. The series is an excellent chance for people to see live music for free. We hope the series goes on another 20 years.

    But as I wrote the day after publicizing that event, “reading Friday Extra is like reading a phone book.”

    To clarify, I have no problem buying and reading newspapers - I subscribe to both dailies, and read the alternative weekly too. I just toss the frix along with the classifieds.

  5. Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog » Blog Archive » double entendre: expanded local Says:
    May 11th, 2007 at 7:24 am

    [...] the paper laid off those 70 folks, they warned us changes would be coming, including “highly local news”: The newspaper [...]

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