What's going on with the Florida Times Union?

Good Gawd, they done reinvented the wheel in Florida! Wonder if it'll work nationwide?

 

A little bird told me they had a big meeting to discuss what the readers want and what the paper should focus on, and then they created beats for them. After they fired a lot of people in a "reorganization" last year, the new interim publisher realized it wasn't working and is trying to revitalize the newsroom. Also, there are a total of 13 openings

 

The one thing that has always fascinated me about the T-U is that back in the days when most papers were just discovering online editions, the T-U had one of the best websites in the business.

For all I know, it hasn't been updated since.

I posted this about a year ago, but the last time I picked up the TU was when I had a layover in either Orlando or Atlanta during the Masters and there was a copy of the TU lying around at my gate. The golf coverage was outstanding...

So maybe a lot has changed. I just remember seeing the section awhile back with Bianchi, Prisco and Matt Hayes and marveling at how great it was and then seeing it a few years later with their replacements and how colossal the dropoff was...

 

Duval County is, I think, the largest or one of the largest in the state. They need a lot of writers. Not to mention they cover outlying counties in the state and even south Georgia. That paper could have specialty/neighborhood sections by the dozens. Good to see. But as someone said, why wasn't this done earlier?

 

Diabeetus, just to clarify, no one was fired in the reorganization last year. Existing personnel was shuffled into new groups, and a few people weren't happy about it, so they left. I don't know of anyone who was fired.

 

The T-U's UF coverage has never been the same since Hayes left for TSN.

 

Oh, where would I start?

For those who don't know, I was hired in February 2007 at the T-U as chief editor of a community publication that was to be completely redesigned and expanded from two times a week to four. Turned down two other jobs for it.
It was a terrific start, a snappy product that was well received in Clay County, just south of Jax and one of the state's fastest-growing areas.
In two months, we had our first layoff. A reporter who had been there for just a few months.
After three months, another layoff.
I lost my job after 10 months; it was written out of the 2008 budget (nice Xmas present, thank you very much) and the general manager of my office was turned back into an editor with a smaller staff than when the whole thing began. In Clay County, we lost 50 percent of our small staff. I never could get any real specific reasons, except the economy and millions of dollars lost in a crappy (read: real estate) economy.

There were possibly about 100 (but none that I know of in the daily newsroom) who lost jobs, some who had been there 25-plus years.

After I left, there were several top execs shown the door, retired, resigned, whatever you want to call it:
publisher
exec editor
managing editor
community publications general manager
advertising manager
circulation director

Now, Morris corporate is running things, and at least hiring into some of the vacated daily newsroom positions. A good thing, for sure. A light in the tunnel. Meanwhile, many of us ride the unemployment train through that tunnel.

Just the way it is in our current industry, I suppose....

 

Shit, I almost wish I had done more crime coverage.