We Need to Save the Times Union!

[bl8jaxnative]

No worries.  The 20% of people left in that business have shown themselves to work for nearly nothing.  They'll be plenty of megolomniacs in 2024 putting something out proclaiming to the world how to vote.

[JaxJersey-licious]

Great New Year's sale.

$39 for a year of digital access.

https://www.jacksonville.com/subscribenow?gps-source=CPDOT&itm_source=DOT&itm_medium=onsite&itm_campaign=EOYSale2020&itm_term=EOYSale2020&itm_content=embed

An ideal way for any newspaper to help drum up revenue and be more user friendly is to charge a la carte for having access to a series of articles. Many people back in the day when paywalls were less implemented and more generous in their article allotments, many people turned to these local papers for more in depth coverage of articles that garnered national attention. To get even more background on those stories they would also go to links or search for related articles those publications previously published. Although better for the consumer who would rather skip that site altogether instead of ponying up for an underutilized subscription, an a la carte system is too inefficient with all the electronic transaction fees it would entail so these papers are stuck with this long-term subscription model.

While we lament the deterioration of our local dailies and lambast the apathy of the general public, many newspaper fans overlook the real elephant in the room: The 3-5 local television news outlets in their region. These news providers not only have the benefits of being propped up by popular national programming, cheap syndicated shows, and countless hours billed for informercials and religious programming, there is a ceaseless demand to advertise on local news so much so that stations are running out of time to cater to them (like is there really an aching need for all mid-market TV stations to have a newscast at 4 AM?) That's more that enough resources to buoy up their complimentary internet offerings of the same bite-size chunks of news they provide on air that devoted local newspaper readers have always cried out against.

I wish it could be as easy to have a more devoted citizenry to local issues to solve the problems of local papers but unfortunately it will have to take a lot more that that because that ship has sailed.

[Florida Power And Light]

News4jax

[jaxlongtimer]

Christopher Hong leaving the Times Union after this week.  This is a big blow to local journalism and coverage of our City officials.  It takes years to build up the knowledge and experience to cover City politicos so he will not be easily replaced anytime soon.  That background also allows a reporter to dig deeper to separate out what is BS or a self-serving agenda from what is truly in the interest of our citizens.

This is also why we need to support the T-U and its reporters with subscribing.  Our dollars pay their salaries.  Losing their coverage will greatly diminish our community.  Imagine what Curry and his ilk would get away with without the T-U's coverage.

Chris's announcement:
https://twitter.com/ChrisHongTU/status/1354504382956580865

[MusicMan]

Did the real estate sell? Buildings next to Haskell?  Do not see any evidence of a recent sale at property appraiser's website, so NO?

[jaxlongtimer]

Did the real estate sell? Buildings next to Haskell?  Do not see any evidence of a recent sale at property appraiser's website, so NO?

The Morris family retained ownership of the Times Union real estate and only sold the operations.  They have been working for quite some time on a development plan for the property including opening up McCoys Creek that runs under it.  Given it's high profile, its been covered regularly in the media and by the community.  When they do sell or finalize development plans, I imagine it will be well covered and you won't be able to miss the coverage  .

FYI, the property appraiser's site can run more than 30 days behind showing recorded sales.  I note that even Zillow shows sales weeks before the property appraiser site.  I gather you would need a "seat at the courthouse" if you want to scoop everyone.  Short of that, the Daily Record is your best bet as that seems to be what they are doing  .

[MusicMan]

Appreciate that. I am aware of the issues with COJ.....

[bl8jaxnative]

Christopher Hong leaving the Times Union after this week.  This is a big blow to local journalism and coverage of our City officials.  It takes years to build up the knowledge and experience to cover City politicos so he will not be easily replaced anytime soon.  That background also allows a reporter to dig deeper to separate out what is BS or a self-serving agenda from what is truly in the interest of our citizens.

This is also why we need to support the T-U and its reporters with subscribing.  Our dollars pay their salaries.  Losing their coverage will greatly diminish our community.  Imagine what Curry and his ilk would get away with without the T-U's coverage.

Chris's announcement:
https://twitter.com/ChrisHongTU/status/1354504382956580865

There will be more to come.  The industry is bleeding jobs, down 2/3 - 80% since the turn of the century.

[Florida Power And Light]

Ron Littlepage retired. Focused on Panhandle Acreage.
David Bauerlein remains. Institutional knowledge.
And Steve.......??

I will never forget a meeting with FTU and conservationists/ enviros.
One of the participants, staunch conservative and all that stuff, upon leaving the meeting commented , tongue in cheek that if a tornado had hit the building during our meeting and killed us all the world would be a better place.

[jaxlongtimer]

Wow, this is great news for the Times Union.  Maybe we have hit bottom and local news is on the rise again.  We can thank Mayor Curry for perhaps stimulating more interest by providing a steady stream of controversies  .  I am especially looking forward to the three positions I bolded below.

Mary Kelli Palka: We've added two new journalists. We're looking for four more to join the Times-Union

....Last week, we announced internally the addition of Marcia Pledger, who replaces Mike Clark as our new Opinion and Engagement editor, and of Katherine Lewin, who will cover criminal and social justice issues in Northeast Florida....

....The hiring doesn't stop there, I'm happy to tell you.

We're now looking for another photographer/videographer, a growth and development reporter, another high school sports reporter and a government accountability reporter.

With all of these new journalists, we'll be in a better position to tell more of Northeast Florida's stories, while continuing to make sure our coverage reflects our whole community....

https://www.jacksonville.com/story/opinion/columns/2021/05/30/mary-kelli-palka-meet-our-two-new-journalists-were-hiring-four-more-to-join-florida-times-union/7485156002/

[Charles Hunter]

Yes!

[bl8jaxnative]

What sort of compensation is involved for these positions?   


A lot of hiring in journalism previous to this has come on the young, inexperienced and cheap end of things.    Revenues are down 80% in the last generation, after all.