Media General's Harbinger of Doom

Media General is the parent company of the Tampa Tribune. Media General CEO Marshal Morton sent a letter out to all employees. All Media General staff (including the Tampa Tribune) will have to take 15 unpaid furlough days.

In order to reach our cash flow goal for the year, which has again been lowered from low initial expectations, we must cut expenses in the second half of the year. One of the fastest ways to flow expense savings to the bottom line, without broad-based permanent layoffs, is a furlough program - something we had hoped would not need to do this year. I am sorry to say that Media General employees at all levels will be asked to take 15 furlough days in the second half of this year.

Earlier this year, all operations and corporate departments reduced discretionary spending. More recently, several operations implemented targeted reductions in force to address particular market challenges. Unfortunately, the expense reductions implemented to date are insufficient to meet our cash flow goal. Compounding this situation is the fact that the economic outlook for the second half of the year continues to be uncertain.

The furlough program will cause financial disruption for employees and scheduling challenges for our operations. It's little comfort that we are not alone. Our media companies have implemented layoffs and furlough programs this year. In addition to the impact of the weak economy, it's a sign that traditional media business models continue to be in transition.

Media General has been in financial trouble long before the 2008 market crash. The Tampa Tribune laid off 70 staff members in April of 2007. Late in 2006, Media General bought six NBC affiliate stations for $600 million. Media General didn't get the expected bang for its buck. Around this time the ominously named Harbinger Capital started a hostile takeover of Media General. Harbinger Capital got three of its members to sit on Media General's board. Harbinger Capital wants Media General to sell assets and make a quick profit on the stock. The takeover is so hostile that Morton can't even get Harbinger Capital to return his phone calls.

The Tampa Tribune Endorses Gelber & Bondi

No real shock: the Tampa Tribune endorsed progressive favorite Dan Gelber and Tampa area prosecutor Pam Bondi.

Gelber understands the power of the office, observing correctly that except for the Supreme Court, he would answer to no one in Tallahassee. Indeed, he has a record of standing up to powerful corporate interests and influential politicians who are used to getting their way, like former Gov. Jeb Bush. He has led consequential investigations and supervised operations bigger than the one he would take over if elected.

Gelber maybe the best chance for a Democrat to win a Florida statewide race. Alex Sink is a strong candidate but will need public financing if Rick Scott is the GOP nominee for governor. Adam Putnam is going to win agriculture commissioner. No one is really paying attention to the Chief Financial Officer race. Gelber should be a U.S. Senate candidate and Kendrick Meek should be running for re-election of his Congressional district.

Tampa Tribune Blogger Controversy Gone Mainstream

St.Petersburg Times media columnist Eric Deggans has a summary of the Tampa Tribune controversy.

Tas and I came to the same conclusion as Tommy Duncan. The Tampa Tribune was gathering posts from RSS feeds (Pushing Rope's RSS feed was on the Politics homepage) and posted the content on the web sites. The problem was the Tampa Tribune never asked bloggers for permission. The web site TampaBlab receives permission before posting a bloggers work. The Tribune took posts off of TampaBlab and PR. I have no problem with the Tribune linking to posts. I would have preferred being asked if my posts could be published. I'm sure other PR bloggers feel the same way.

Another problem is no one editing the content the web robot posted on the Tribune. The hysterical results was several raunchy Zencomix strips appeared on the web site. I doubt a family publication wanted a comic strip of Larry Craig searching for Barack Obama's foreskin.

The Tampa Tribune now wants to talk to bloggers about a working partnership. I still haven't received a reply to my invoice.

My Invoice to the Tampa Tribune

Loren

I am submitting a $75.00 invoice for the use of my blog post "Tampa Tribune Runs Tina Dupuy Column Without Payment." TBO.com used the post as part of it's opinion page content. Google cache has saved the post.
http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:61nOUq056bEJ:www2.tbo.com/content/2009/aug/30/tampa-tribune-runs-tina-dupuy-column-wit-46298/+pushing+rope+site:www2.tbo.com&cd=9&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

I understand Dave Dugan has submitted a $400.00 invoice for use of his comic strip Zencomix. His artwork was pulled off of my blog and posted onto TBO.com.

I look forward to your response.

Tampa Tribune Agrees to Pay Tina Dupuy

Tina Dupuy made a new video of the Tampa Tribune relenting to the pressure of the internet and agreeing to pay her for her op-ed "'Birthers' are clinging to unreasonable doubt." The explanation by editor Jim Beamguard for the the Tribune's turnabout left Dupuy speechless.

Dave Dugan of Zencomix has sent Loren Omoto, Director of TBO.com Content, an invoice.

Loren,
It has come to my attention that you have been using my copyrighted cartoons as content on tbo.com. At this point in time, I have identified 4 of my comic strips that you have used, located at these web addresses on your website.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/sep/03/c-street-deli-is-good-for-your-belly-93816/

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/sep/02/craigslist-33329/

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/sep/01/birther-pangs-of-democracy-61138/

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/aug/30/foreskin-500-62500/

The price for using my cartoons is $100 per comic strip, so you owe me $400. The payment is due by 11:59 pm on September 22. If payment has not been received by the due date, a late fee of 10% on the outstanding balance will accrue on a daily basis.

Payment can be made through the Paypal button located in the left hand sidebar of my website, Zencomix.If you are unable to use the Paypal button, and you need an address so you can mail me a paper check, let me know.

Thank you,
David Dugan

P.S. Bulk rates are available if payment is made in advance.

Dave wrote a related post at his blog. Dave is asking if anyone else has found Zencomix posts on TBO.com. I brought this to Dave's attention.

Thanks to Crooks and Liars for posting about our problems with the Tampa Tribune.

Tampa Tribune: Start Paying Bloggers

I have received a lot of emails from bloggers that are concerned about their work being used by the Tampa Tribune without consent. I have blogged about Pushing Rope content being used without permission. Tina Dupuy and Alex Pickett have written about similar experinces. I have decided to start the Facebook group "Tampa Tribune: Start Paying Bloggers." The group is to help bloggers whom have had their work used by the Tampa TribuneTBO.com without their consent. This is a place for us to organize, share ideas and post updates. WE also want to know if your work has been used by the Tampa Tribune without consent or credit.

Tampa Tribune: Start Paying Bloggers

Tampa Tribune Runs Tina Dupuy Column Without Payment

L.A. blogger/stand-up comedian Tina Dupuy freelanced the op-ed "'Birthers' are clinging to unreasonable doubt" to the Tampa Tribune. The Tampa Tribune/Media General ran her column without giving her payment. Dupuy has worked for many alt-weeklies and did not send her work to the Tampa Tribune as a letter to the editor. She expected payment and has taken action by posting a Youtube video.

I have written about the Tampa Tribune running Pushing Rope content without my consent. PR bloggers Alex Pickett and Litbrit have had their posts run without their permission. The Tampa blog Sticks of Fire have also experienced the same problem. This takes serious chutzpah on the part of the Tribune.

Odd fact: I'm partly the catalyst for Dupuy becoming a columnist. I wrote these words on a defunct blog. Dupuy has posted my quote on her blog.

"But her blog posts are humorous and on target. She writes better than many columnists."
-Michael Hussey

In an interview, Dupuy explained why she became a columnist.

It's a great exercise as a writer. A guy wrote on his blog that I wrote better than some columnists. You'd think I'd be flattered. Yet, I immediately thought, "Wow. I'm a loser. I should submit my work to newspapers." So I started doing that. A couple of pieces have gotten published. Which may have not happened if I wasn't obsessively writing a blog almost everyday for two years.

I still believe Dupuy is a great writer and the Tampa Tribune should pay her for her work. The Tribune's use of bloggers' material is getting ridiculously out of control. I'm sure many bloggers would allow their content to be used for the exposure. Dupuy and PR bloggers don't need the exposure. If the Tribune wants our content than pay up or stop reprinting our words.

Dear Tampa Tribune

Dear Tampa Tribune

I do appreciate the traffic TBO.com is bringing to my blog. However, if you are going to use my blog post on Mark Sanford, I would like a byline and for TBO.com to ask before using my content. I know TBO.com doesn't want to follow the cheesy Creative Loafing model of using and abusing bloggers for free content. The Tampa Tribune is a real newspaper with paid investigative journalists. Creative Loafing is published so people would have something to line kitty litter boxes. Reputations must be maintained.

If you ever want to use my content just drop me an email. I will mostly likely say yes.

Cheers,

Michael Hussey
Blog Editor of Pushing Rope

Tampa Tribune Endorses Kevin Beckner

The conservative Tampa Tribune couldn't hold their nose and endorse Hillsborough County Commision incumbant Brian Blair. Could it be the silly previous career as a professional wrestler? Perhaps Blair claiming he isn't a bigot by calling Michael Jackson a white person? Maybe it is Blair using gay and lesbian rights as a political wedge issue? Or that Blair has been the most anti-environmental commisioner in Hillsborough County's history. The answer is the Tampa Tribune finds Blair too stupid to endorse.

The amiable Blair is not the sharpest commissioner, but he has grown in office. He's helped curtail extravagant salary increases for county employees, supported cuts in property taxes and advanced worthy measures such as go-slow traffic zones around communities for seniors.

Yet he remains prone to rash pronouncements, as when he complained that cutting his $600 monthly car allowance would take food out of his children's mouths.

The nicest things the Tribune could say is Blair "not the sharpest commissioner" and his finest policy idea was "go-slow traffic zones" for senior citizens. Blair is for cutting county employee saleries. Excluding his own salery.

The Tribune offers praise for Beckner.

He stresses the need for better planning and understands that sprawling development makes the county a more expensive place to live, a negative when trying to attract high-wage companies.

The former police officer believes the county should better prioritize spending and focus on building infrastructure that supports job growth. Beckner rightly believes the county can do a better job of partnering with its municipalities, and its state delegation, to advance the region's interests.

Beckner would approach each issue with an open mind and seems unlikely to be swayed by special interests. His role models on the commission are Mark Sharpe and Rose Ferlita.

Will Beckner have a more out-of-the-box idea like go-slow traffic zones? Inquiring minds want to know.

The Anwar Richardson School of Economics Award

"It's actually gonna pump some money into this economy. Especially, in the Tampa Bay economy."

Tampa Tribune sports writer Anwar Richardson, on Brett Favre becoming the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback. Bucs General Manager Bruce Allen told the St. Petersburg Times there was never going to be a Farve deal.

“”There was no negotiations,” Allen said. “There was never any substantive talk about what they would take to trade him. So all of that was speculation. From the beginning, I think it was clear it was a bad situation in Green Bay and they had to deal with it any way they could.

“Green Bay never told us what they were even interested in trading him for,” Allen said.

That didn't stop the Tampa Tribune from constantly reporting that Farve was coming to Tampa. Creative Loafing's Wayne Garcia breaks down how the Tribune did this without even citing anonymous sources. Truly hysterical.

I have written blog posts on how stadiums do not boost local economies. My question is what economic data did Anwar Richardson use to know that Favre would help the economies of Hillsborough and Pinellas counties. That is the Tampa Bay area. Richardson did not offer an opinion. He made a declarative statement. Does Richardson have a Brett Farve economic impact study? I would love for Richardson to write about that study in his column. Did Richardson use the same research methods for his economic statement; that he used to report the possibility that Brian Griese might be traded to Green Bay?

Many started to speculate Griese could be shipped out of Tampa after he missed Monday afternoon’s practice, but the quarterback said he was given that time off. Bucs Coach Jon Gruden routinely gives veteran players the afternoon off and Griese’s respite was yesterday.

Richardson doesn't tell us who speculated? A quarterback automatically becomes trade bait because his coach gave him the afternoon off. Investigative journalism at it's finest.

I have the Joel Award for people that say something stupid and deny making the statement. We now have the Anwar Richardson School of Economics Award. This is given to people that make economic claims that have no basis in reality. Much like Richardson's Brett Favre reporting.

Anwar Richardson: we salute you.

Conserative Newspapers Lay Off Staff

Newscorp has started the layoffs at The Wall Street Journal.

The Wall Street Journal is to cut 50 journalist posts in a restructure to centralise the editing of the paper in print and online, its managing editor, Robert Thomson, has revealed in a memo to staff.

Thomson does a lot of spinning in the article. He claims the 50 layoffs aren't really layoffs. "Staffers with the highest skill levels and the enthusiasm to acquire new skills will have a distinct advantage in the selection process, Thomson said.

Thomson also claimed that 95 new jobs will be created from the WSJ's online and international operations. He does not say when these staffers will be hired.

In Florida, The Tampa Tribune laid off 11 reporters.

Janet Coats pulled up a chair in the middle of her Tampa Tribune newsroom to deliver the news to her staff in early July, explaining why 11 reporters (including the newspaper's Florida State Seminoles sports beat writer) were hitting the bricks.

For Coats, the paper's executive editor, cutbacks and financial losses mean wholesale changes in the way a now-smaller newsroom will gather and present news for consumers. She started outlining a new journalism plan without traditional beat structures or titles, a model that relies first and foremost on "audience interaction."

What saved the Wall Street Journal was standout reporting. Journalists at the WSJ were hostile to Rupert Murdoch take over of the paper. Their fears were that Murdoch is going to journalisticly and financially run the respect daily into the ground. Murdoch's The New York Post has lost money for years and is known for sensationalism.

The Tampa Tribune can't boost the WSJ's record of journalistic excellence. Sports writer Tom McEwen was forced out because of his business ties with local teams and George Steinbrenner. The Trib has cited the disgraced Steven Emerson as a terrorism expert. Emerson's plagiarism and fabrication of facts are well-documented.

As Emerson's fame mounted, so did criticism. Emerson's book, The Fall of Pan Am 103, was chastised by the Columbia Journalism Review, which noted in July 1990 that passages "bear a striking resemblance, in both substance and style" to reports in the Post-Standard of Syracuse, N.Y. Reporters from the Syracuse newspaper told this writer that they cornered Emerson at an Investigative Reporters and Editors conference and forced an apology.

A New York Times review (5/19/91) of his 1991 book Terrorist chided that it was "marred by factual errors…and by a pervasive anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian bias." His 1994 PBS video, Jihad in America (11/94), was faulted for bigotry and misrepresentations--veteran reporter Robert Friedman (The Nation, 5/15/95) accused Emerson of "creating mass hysteria against American Arabs."

Emerson was wrong when he initially pointed to Yugoslavians as suspects in the World Trade Center bombing (CNN, 3/2/93). He was wrong when he said on CNBC (8/23/96) that "it was a bomb that brought down TWA Flight 800."

The Trib's prep sports reporter Rozel A. Lee was fired for manipulating the voting for an award. Brad Smith was fired for fabricating parts of a news story he was personally involved in.

We read about conservative papers always having these journalistic and financial problems. The New York Times and Washington Post have to compete just as hard for readers in the internet age. No one seriously thinks those two publications are going out of business tomorrow. Those are the papers of record. Unsurprisingly, two recent NY Times and Post scandals came from neoconservative Judith Miller and plagiarist Republican blogger Ben Domenech.

The conservative Trib can not compete with the more successful St. Petersburg Times because it doesn't have the same standards of excellence. Conservative news junkies don't want investigative reporting or unbiased media coverage. They distrust the media and turn to Fox News, talk radio and conservative blogs. The echo chamber tells conservatives what they want to hear. Not what they want to read.

WTF Journalism

Another great moment in journalism from the Tampa Tribune. The first paragraph by writer Josh Poltilove shows a clueless understanding.

TAMPA - A Tampa man had consensual sex with a 12-year-old girl several times in recent months, Tampa police say.

A 12 year-old girl can not give sexual consent to a 18 year-old adult. That is why Mizraim Abiel Rivera-Ramos is being charged with two counts of lewd and lascivious batter. If Rivera-Ramos was 25 he would be charged with statutory rape.

Poltilove and the Tribune editors should ask themselves if a fifth-grader has the capacity and emotional maturity to consent to sex with an adult. Were they trying to make the story more titillating for sales? This piece boggles my mind.

PoHo On My Deggans Post

Wayne Garcia takes issue with "one point" in my post on St. Petersburg Times Eric Deggans.

Deggans is not an ombudsman in any sense of the word; he is a media reporter, mostly writing about other media forms and companies. Both dailies in town generally leave the other alone and out of their news columns.

Garcia is correct. As I said in the Political Whore comments: the ombudsman remark was snark. My point was Deggans has a hard time finding fault in the publication he works for. Deggans is a good media critic, with the exception when it comes to his own newspaper. Deggans responsibilities at The St. Petersburg Times is not the same as the Washington Post's Deborah Howell.

Garcia's post brings up an unsaid truth. The Tampa Tribune and St. Petersburg Times have an unspoken agreement to not critique each other's journalism standards. The losers are readers that aren't aware if they are misinformed. Bloggers are happy to point out inaccuracies in news articles. With the exception of huge blogs such as Huffington Post and Daily Kos, weblogs do not reach the same audience as newspapers. Readers will never know if they read sloppy journalism. The hands-off attitude between the Tampa Tribune and St. Petersburg Times hurts citizens attempting to make informed choices.

Update: Eric Deggans takes exception with my previous post.

The fact is, I have found fault with many things my employer has done, most notably, the April TBT headline "He Died of Shame," which accompanied a story on WFLA weatherman John winter's suicide.

I wrote a direct criticism of that headline on my blog which was picked up by many national media blogs, including Poynter's Romenesko site and Mediabistro.com. I did it with little or no discussion with superiors and no idea what the professional consequences would be.

I also criticized TBT's pattern of running in-your face headlines to go with stories written for our main paper which are more fairly balanced.

When the New York Times ran a blindingly complimentary article about our business model, I wrote a blog post which pointed out that it was a mistaken hypothesis, given all the reductions we're going through these days.

I haven't read the articles Deggans mentioned. I have no oppinion pro or con. Deggans has the right to defend himself. Go read his comment.

Tampa Tribune Editorial Against Property Tax Amendment

The conservative Tampa Tribune editorial board is urging voters to not approve the property tax amendment. What the Trib points out is the unfairness of the amendment.

Lawmakers cannot explain why someone buying a first home - or moving here from out of state - should be forced to pay radically higher taxes than someone who trades up into a much more expensive residence. Instead of addressing the inequities, they followed Gov. Charlie Crist's simplistic advice to make matters worse. Eventually, a judge is likely to rule that the inequities are so great that they are unconstitutional, and kill the Save Our Homes amendment altogether.

Under existing law, at least everyone who buys a new home is treated the same. Under the proposed version of portability, homesteaders can transfer up to $500,000 of sheltered value to a new property.

This change promises a longtime homesteader who downsizes a virtually tax-free retirement, while grandchildren buying their first home could be taxed to death.

What the Trib doesn't mention is we can expect legal challenges to the constitutionality of the amendment. The taxation does not treat all as equal. A transplaned resident can by the same model home as a retiree downgrading to a smaller house. They have the same homes in the same neighborhood. The resident whom recently moved to Florida will pay much more taxes.

The stupidity of this is it is discouraging people from moving into Florida. Growth is the engine that feeds tax revenue. I would love to see Florida get off the growth monster. Crist and the legislature do not have to spine to revamp the tax system. The amendment was designed for short-term political considerations. Crist and the Republican legislature have no regard for fiscal responsibility.