As the availability of information keeps exploding, it is always a delight to find a copy of the Weekly Planet and TBT waiting for me at one of my usual beer stops. Ok, you might not always agree with them and the ads and subjects are sometimes a little more over the edge than you might like, but, isn't that what an "alternative" paper is supposed to be all about ?
The financially affluent (as in rich) St. Petersburg Times has decided to launch their TBT (Tampa Bay Times) on a Monday through Friday basis. While the Weekly Planet is their main target, Media General's Tampa Tribune is in their sights as well.
Information is everywhere: thousands of radio stations are now within your reach courtesy of satellites and webcasts; bloggers are cropping up everywhere, and of course, websites that can specifically target your interests, and even newspapers that are publishing online editions. All of these have been contributing to the continued decline in newspaper circulation and job layoffs in the industry.
When you are at your next beer stop and the alternative paper racks are brimming with new issues, pick up TBT and the Weekly Planet and compare the LOCAL content and reporting. There are very noticeable differences. As your read this blog and other news online, it seeems that maybe they are just fighting over deck chairs on the Titanic. What do you think ? We would like to know.
4 comments:
Mr. Bill,
There you go again....blasting off to the far left. There's a senate committee from the 50's that will be interviewing you soon.
HCOUA
I think the real target is the Tribune, not the Weekly Planet. I think the Times is making a 2 front attack on Tampa stronghold of the Trib. The TBT on one front to grab readers and suck them into the Times and the Times directly seeking greater subscriptions from Central Tampa residents.
You raise the question but you don't answer it. What do you think, Mr. Bill, of the difference between the two?
Weekly Planet has some local coverage but other than insider politics I don't learn much new.
TBT has more wire copy that I would like but it has several pages of local news, so I like that. Sure, a lot of it is rehashed from the Times, but I get the impression this is written for people who don't read the grownups newspaper. It feels like fortified sugar cereal.
Since you asked, here is my answer. I like the quality of print and paper used on TBT better than the Planet (the same about the St. Pete Times versus the Tribune), however, having been in the Tampa Bay area I have seen the Planet serve a great journalistic role in our community. I have serious doubts that TBT can provide information of substance on a daily basis, especially since they seem to be mostly in love with the wire service info they use so extensively. I liken this to the Coca Cola/ Pepsi battles. As soda drinkage continues to decrease, they keep coming up with a new flavor or new angle to try to keep their market from slipping anymore. As the recent Knight Ridder sales shows, the same seems true for the newspapers. With sites like ours and the many blogs like Sticks of Fire, we are all taking just a little bit of the newspaper market away, a small bite at a time. As an environmentalist, I find throwing away all the paper revolting. Plus if you have looked at TAMPAGOLD.COM's coverage of the kickoff of the Riverwalk project with audio and video that was online 12 hours before the newspaper reached any doors, how can they compete ?
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