Major moves in the newspaper war

The St. Petersburg Times has made some major offensives in the newspaper war with the Tribune.

First they have filed a countersuit against the Trib regarding the name Tampa Times saying that the Tribune abandoned the name.

"The Tampa Tribune is afraid of competition and is trying to hide behind the tombstone of a newspaper that has been dead for almost a quarter-century," said Paul Tash, Times editor and chief executive." and "The Times' countersuit says the Tribune abandoned the "Tampa Times" trademark by not using it and committed fraud by lying about its use in a trademark application."

Secondly they have begun forming partnerships with Central Tampa neighborhood associations, the neighborhoods that felt abandoned by the Tribune. In the March 2006 edition of the Southeast Seminole Heights Civic Association newsletter (due to be delivered this weekend) it is noted that the Times has agreed to sponsor the next general membership meeting. They will be providing refreshments and are providing a guest speaker, City Times Editor Susan Thurston. "Other neighborhood friendly ideas" will be discussed at the meeting. I have been asked not to reveal those ideas prior to the meeting, so stay tuned for more details.

I can say that the Times will be offering Seminole Heights residents a significant discount on the initial price of subscription. Also note on page 5 this blurb in the newsletter "Southeast Seminole Heights Civic Association welcomes the St. Petersburg Times 'In the know - In the Times. - TampaBay.com' to the neighborhood" This years Old Seminole Heights Home Tour is sponsored in part by the St. Pete Times.

It's funny. At the Tribune meeting, I suggested that the Tribune partner with the neighborhood associations to look at ways of increasing Tribune readership and ad revenues. Gil Thelen seemed very excited at these ideas. The Tribune leadership also mentioned that they planned to get the Tribune's editors out to the association meetings. Little did I know that the forward thinking Times had already begun planning in those directions, taking advantage of an opening the Tribune left when it withdrew the Central Tampa edition.

The Tribune has seemed to have made a series of recent missteps.

They dropped the Central Tampa Edition with essential no real notice to readers.

They changed the TV section, resulting in howls of anger from readers. This prompted an written apology by the Tribune and essentially a return of the section to the way it was.

They have yet to make a written apology in the paper to the Central Tampa readers.

They did not challenge the creation of the TBT - Tampa Bay Times when it first came out one and a half years ago, thus allowing the Times a beachhead with regards to the name Tampa Bay Times.

They were slow to realize the popularity and influence of blogs and were significantly second behind the Times in cultivating relationships with the bloggers. The TBT featured a cover story about area bloggers and the Times created a blogger section on the online edition that included regular features about the blogs. After a while the Trib finally created a Bay Area Blog Watch , however they do not feature any of the blogs. It's funny because one of my favorite blogs Side Salad comes out of the Tribune. (By the way the hip Weekly Planet also has paid attention to bloggers, even making it a category in their Best of the Bay)

It almost seems like the senior leadership of the Tribune is out of touch with the community, despite its very excellent efforts to make a community focus to the paper (More focus on community news, the slight moderation of its conservative bent, the creation of the community columnists and the Centro edition.) Perhaps if they paid more attention to the worker bees, those great Tribune reporters who are actually out in the community, then there might be less missteps. Dear Janet and Gil and Duke and etc. Get out of South Tampa and come visit us. Eat in our restaurants and shop in our stores. Learn who we are and what we want.

I predict the Times will end up with a significant presence in Central Tampa, unless the Trib makes a stronger counter attack. The Trib is on the ropes now in Central Tampa.

Over the years I have heard and read many stories about the Trib and its reporting and that they had such a big emphasis on the bottom line. I heard that back in the 1980's they were not satisfied with a 12% return and were seeking a 18% and so they let go many a good reporter. Did this this strong emphasis on a higher bottom line cut into the later relevance of the paper, thus making it easier for the Times?

Note the following coverage on the issue by Sticks of Fire and the Weekly Planet