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McClatchy to Miami Herald: Time to find a new home.

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Mozilla, May 29, 2011.

  1. Mark2010

    Mark2010 Active Member

    Gee, what a wonderful work environment.
     
  2. Desk_dude

    Desk_dude Member

    The Sun-Sentinel's presses are better, but because of so many jobs being printed, it would need more presses. But the place has room to easily add a press.
     
  3. Tarheel316

    Tarheel316 Well-Known Member

    What Mark said.
     
  4. Fran Curci

    Fran Curci Well-Known Member

    Fort Lauderdale could print the paper without a merger; it could simply be a printing contract. I believe they already print other newspapers.
     
  5. reformedhack

    reformedhack Well-Known Member

    Fort Lauderdale, of course, is right in the middle of the three-county metro area. The Sun-Sentinel already prints the Palm Beach Post, so it probably makes business sense to add the Miami Herald as well ... provided there's enough press time and availability to print three daily papers.
     
  6. LanceyHoward

    LanceyHoward Well-Known Member

    Ft. Lauderdale could just print the Herald. But if the printing is done at the same site why not merge the news staffs? I think only the fact that the Tribune Company, which owns the Sun-Sentinel, has been stuck in bankruptcy court for so long, has stopped this from happening.
     
  7. Frank_Ridgeway

    Frank_Ridgeway Well-Known Member

    I don't see consolidation into one newspaper as being a good idea. A lot of Broward County people do not consider Dade County as even part of the United States, let alone an appealing neighbor to the south.
     
  8. LanceyHoward

    LanceyHoward Well-Known Member

    Consolidation is indeed a bad idea from your perspective or my perspective. But I think the typical newspaper manager, who would see the opportunity to whack bodies, would embrace the idea. It is a Pavlovian thing.

    And I think that an argument can be made that you could run a combined paper with English and Spanish language editions and that would make more sense in South Florida than Broward and Dade newspapers. Are the divides in South Florida by county or by language spoken? 25% of the Herald subscription base is in their Spanish edition. I don't know how widely the Herald Spanish edition circulates in Broward, where I would guess the Hispanic population is rapidly growing, but I don't think the Sun-Sentinel does much in Spanish (at least not enough to break out separate circ numbers).
     
  9. Fran Curci

    Fran Curci Well-Known Member

    When you talk about consolidating papers, you're really talking about one paper putting itself out of business. If McClatchy wanted to pull the plug, I'm sure the Sun-Sentinel would be happy to buy the subscription list for minimal $$$. But I don't see where there is much other potential for consolidation. Further joint operating agreements? Sure, I'll buy that.
     
  10. LanceyHoward

    LanceyHoward Well-Known Member

    Well, you could start with the sports desks. Why have separate beat writers for the same teams? And you would only need to lay out one newspaper and distribute it.

    I think a consolidation would lead to higher short term profits but long term loss of market share because the papers do serve a separate market and there would be readers that drop off. But many managements reach for the quick buck. Singleton, for example.
     
  11. wicked

    wicked Well-Known Member

    The problem with merging the papers is that the audience of whatever paper is deep-sixed is gone, for good. You aren't getting those eyeballs back. I know little about the South Florida market(s), but I'd say the cross buy rate between the Herald and S-S is minimal, probably low single digits?
     
  12. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    For all intents and purposes, Lauderdale has already merged with Orlando. While they would love the opportunity to print the Herald, merging with another product wouldn't seem to make much sense.
     
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