At the Times, we're betting on the future
By PAUL TASH
Published October 15, 2006
Tomorrow, you’ll see the new design of the St. Petersburg Times. To my eye, it is both fresh and familiar. I believe you’ll like it.
What you won’t see is all the remodeling of our machinery and technology that has gone on in the background. Over the last three years, we have spent upward of $25-million to change the way we assemble, print and deliver Tampa Bay’s favorite newspaper.
That would be a pretty dumb investment if newspapers were really on their last gasp, as so much chatter about our business might have you believe. But that’s not how things look to me.
Sure, we face our challenges (but tell me: what business isn’t more competitive these days?). Among other things, young people don’t read newspapers as often as their parents do, and the parents don’t read newspapers as often as their parents do.
Electronic delivery — the Internet — offers plenty of promise. We also remodeled our Web sites earlier this year, and our audience and advertising there are growing dramatically. But for the foreseeable future, ink-on-paper continues to command a much bigger audience, and frankly, it pays the bills. All of which argues that we ought to make newspapers better, not give up on them.
Last month, we celebrated the second birthday of our free tabloid newspaper, tbt*/Tampa Bay Times, which is edited for younger readers. It went from weekly to daily publication last March, and it must be the fastest-growing newspaper in Florida.
And tomorrow, our flagship newspaper gets its first real makeover in a decade. You’ll find more color, better organization and a narrower page that is easier to handle, especially for readers with a shorter wingspan.
The capital investments leading up to the new look were a lot to bite off, but they might have been more difficult elsewhere. Most newspapers are owned as part of big public companies. With shareholders pressing for quarterly profits, they have a hard time looking past the problems of the moment to the possibilities that lie ahead.
The Times, on the other hand, is an independent newspaper, one of the few remaining in American journalism. Like any other business, we like profits, too, and we’re on the prowl against needless expense. But we’re also willing to spend a buck today, even if the payoff won’t come right away.
It also helps that we are based here. A while back I was the luncheon speaker at the local Kiwanis Club. Among the companies that own Florida’s biggest newspapers, I am the only CEO who could walk from his office to such a meeting. All the rest are out of state.
We know that Tampa Bay is a thriving region with great days ahead, even if the economy is cooling a little. Our investment is not just a bet that good journalism will remain a good business, and not just that print will remain an important part of it. We’re also making a big bet on the future of Tampa Bay. It is, after all, our home.
Ben Hayes, who runs our printing operations, says the remodeling and mechanical work we’re finishing will extend the life of our presses by another 20 years. By that time, the next generation will get to make its own judgment about how the business looks to them.