|
|
|
Announced merger of Inquirer and Daily News newsrooms sparks newsroom confusion and concern
Philadelphia Media Network has announced that the Inquirer and Daily News newsrooms will merge. Whatever that means. Reporters at both paper-of-record and brash-tabloid say they have no idea what's going on.
Announced merger of Inquirer and Daily News newsrooms sparks newsroom confusion and concern
Philadelphia Media Network (PMN) has announced that the Inquirer and Daily News newsrooms will merge when they move from the Inquirer building at 400 N. Broad St. to the old Strawbridge store at Eighth and Market Streets in July 2012.
Whatever that means. Reporters at both paper-of-record and brash-tabloid say they have no idea what’s going on.
One newsroom insider is worried that the merger will set the stage for more layoffs, and is “not excited about it.
Competition is a good thing. I fear it will mean more downsizing (even if [CEO and Publisher Gregory [Osberg says that's not the plan). But I also don't exactly know what it means, and won't, until we see the details. Will it mean we'll have a giant City Hall desk? Or does it mean only the Inky will do City Hall coverage? How will we split up stories? How will we keep stories a secret from each other (as it stands, you can't even talk breaking news in the cafeteria for fear that someone will steal it)?”
The city’s two dailies have, like newspapers around the country reeling from corporate consolidation and the rise of internet advertising, had a tumultuous few years. In September, City Paper reported a new round of buyouts at the papers.
“DN people [are] worried it means papers merging and job cuts,” another newsroom source tells CP. “Sounds credible. We have no real info.”
In September, Temple professor of journalism Andrew Mendelson told CP that the buyouts suggested just that.
"The buyouts,” he wrote, “are likely foreshadowing layoffs and other restructuring.”
G.W. Miller, journalist (formerly at the Daily News) and fellow Temple journalism professor, has an even more pessimistic take.
“For sale! I'm thinking the venture capital company that owns the joint is priming this sucker for sale,” he writes City Paper. “Just a hunch. But that's what VCs do, you know?”
A third newsroom source says there is gossip that this might be the beginning of the end of two separate dailies.
“Too soon to say, but there are some who believe this is another step in merging the two papers.”
And at least one newsroom source, who also requested anonymity, thinks that won’t be a bad thing--though he also complains that owners have left staff in the dark. He thinks more collaboration will let both paper’s drop redundancies and cover more of Philly and the region.
“First, I wish they would tell us what this means, which they haven't really--maybe they don’t know. The devil is in the details, but it is obviously the right thing to do. It is absurd that we are competing with each other during a time of such limited resources, while there are layoffs, beats are going uncovered, etc., and we have two reporters covering the same Nutter presser [i.e. press conference]?!?”
PMN purchased the papers last year (along with Philly.com, with which City Paper has a content sharing agreement), which had gone into bankruptcy.
Today’s Inquirer article used sort of gross corporate speak to describe the newsroom merger, playing it down and saying only that “the company would merge newsrooms in the new location but maintain separate identities for the company’s brands--The Inquirer, the Daily News, Philly SportsWeek, and Philly.com.”
Separate brand identities? Eww.
In the Daily News, editor Larry Platt was quoted assuring readers the “potty-mouthed tabloid” would still be potty-mouthed (though he nonetheless insisted on using the business-speak word “synergies").
"I'm psyched about this...There are all sorts of synergies that will come from sharing a newsroom space with the Inquirer. I hope we can help to loosen them up a bit, and maybe they'll make us a little more cultured."
On Twitter, Daily News reporter David Gambacorta told City Paper that he saw a silver lining in the office merger.
“It does clear the way for an entertaining game of newsroom dodgeball. So there's that.”
- ActiVman
- adventures
- Arts
- Ask A Man-About-Town
- Award Tour
- Awards
- Bad Idea Factory
- Beer
- Below the Curve
- Bikes
- Booze
- Brian Hickey
- BRT
- Budget
- Budget Fuss
- Business
- Casinos
- City Council
- City Hall
- CouncilMANIC
- CP Abroad
- CP in the Community
- Criminal Justice System
- Day Tripper
- Death and Taxes
- Delaware River
- Design
- DROP
- Drugs
- Dubious Distinction
- Elections
- End of Days
- Environment
- Fashion
- Film Fest
- Financial Meltdown
- FrackTrack
- Free Library
- Gambling
- Gay Stuff
- Get Lit
- Greenstorming
- guns
- Hall Monitor
- Health
- Health Care
- Hello, Kitty
- Holidays
- Ice Cubes
- Iggles
- Immigration
- In Memoriam
- Labor
- Lawsuits
- Letters
- LGBTQ
- Maps
- Marcellus Shale
- Media
- MMA
- Mummers
- Music
- MUST READ
- Mysterious Mysteries
- Nation
- News
- Non Sequitur
- Opinion
- PA politics 2010
- Parking Wars
- Parks and Recreation
- People Send Us This Stuff
- Philadelphia Police
- Philadelphia Union
- Philaphemera
- Philly From Scratch
- philly madness
- Photos
- Poverty
- PPA
- President Obama
- Print Edition
- Prisons
- Protest
- Readers Write
- Real Estate
- Rock Bottom
- Schools
- Science
- Screwing Philly
- SEPTA
- snow
- So Lush
- Soccer
- Sporting Life
- Sports Complex
- State Politicians
- State Politics
- Street Art
- Strike
- Stuff We Like
- Taxes
- Taxi Drivers
- Tech Fetish
- television
- The Budget Crisis
- The City Paper
- The CLOG
- The Human Condition
- The Mayor
- The Phightin Phils
- The World
- Things that make you go hm
- Tinfoil Hats Off
- Under the Table
- Under the Tables
- Urban Development
- Urban Planning
- urban wildlife
- Video Poker
- We Call Shenanigans
- Weather
- Web Junk
- Weekend Omnibus
- White House
- What We've Found
- Women's Issues
- Flyered Up!
- How 'Bout That Weather?
- it's always sunny in philadelphia
- Stu!
- Shopping
- get out
- 10-track mind
- ArtsFlash
- Bloggity
- Bruce Being Bruce
- Colleges
- Comedy
- Gigantic Surprises
- Hello Canary
- Hello Puppy
- errata
- get lost
- Inside The Fishbowl
- Library Closings
- Local Support
- Movies
- Murder
- Night Moves
- Recycling
- radio
- Scientology
- Sex
- Sixers
- Skeeze Police
- State Politicians Screwing Philly
- That's a cool stencil!
- Theater
- Things We See
- This Week
- This Week in Oates
- University City
- WIN
- What we don't heart
- trailer!
- what we heart
- Feeling Guilty
- Askadelphia.
- Broke in Philly
- Contest
- Dance
- Dear Paper Doll
- Do A Good Thing
- Education
- Film Fest Schism
- G20-20 Vision
- Goodbye
- Gossip
- Great American Heroes
- PATCO
- Pearl Jam Week
- Puppy
- Stars of the Photostream
- sustainability
- Lower Merion Webcam-Gate
- The Cycle
- Equality Forum
- Bureaucrat of the Week
- Animals
- ElectionEar
- Photostream
