Janet Coats 'steps down' in Tampa

A running joke in the newsroom today is, "You go, girl. Go ... really, just go."

Spies say Janet has just returned from a visit to Media General headquarters in Virginia, fighting -- to her credit -- against a plan to consolidate all copy editing functions for all MG papers in one location. And that location would be neither Tampa nor Richmond, according to the grapevine.

Read into that what you will.

 

If that's true, at least she went down fighting the good fight.

 

Hickory: Ground Zero for MG editing.

 

You're not too far off the mark, from what I hear.

 

Apparently she thought it was worth fighting for.

(Yeah, it actually is.)

 

Yep. That's the prevailing theory. Big enough to handle the sophistication of metro copy, small enough to pay cheaply. The line has it that MG considered Tampa and Richmond, but wants to avoid a unionized shop (Richmond) or metropolitan pay scale (Tampa). Diabolical, if true.

 

All desk functions, yes ... that is my understanding, which is fairly limited and admittedly third-hand. I only have the headline and the nutgraf, not the full story.

I would think they would have *some* people at each paper taking calls -- basically, redefining the concept of the local desk and considering the people to be "content gatherers" or somesuch hokum -- who can answer phones, compile a roundup and ship it to the universal desk for editing. The actual mechanics of the deal, I'm not privy to.

 

That's the best news the Trib has had all year.

From the sounds of it, the Tribune is doing better than some people (Myself included) thought. A few months ago, I was sure this was going to be the next big paper to fold.

Glad to see that doesn't appear to be the case.