http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2017-08-09/morris-publishing-sells-florida-times-union-gatehouse-media
This is the same company that owns the Gainesville Sun, Daytona Beach News Journal, and Ocala Star-Banner.
It would not surprise me if the Florida-Times Union ends up becoming more integrated and sharing more stories with the above papers.
The websites for all those papers suck though.
Great! Now let's get some modern minds running the paper for a change. The T-U has to be the bottom of the barrel rag. I watched how this paper went from a mouthpiece of a railroad to a redneck publication sponsoring 19th century thinking. Maybe things will change, but I doubt it.
Interesting development. We'll see how it works out.
Morris still holding onto building, land and plans for hotel and mixed use on the site. Now that should be interesting!
Does any newspaper have prominence and credibility in 2017? Maybe in 2000 when no one knew any better. Look at the New York Times for godsakes. It's all old dying propaganda laden legacy media. Lets not pretend that the Times Union is the only paper that's a shadow of itself after the internet took over.
Quote from: mtraininjax on August 09, 2017, 11:07:54 AM
Morris still holding onto building, land and plans for hotel and mixed use on the site. Now that should be interesting!
I won't hold my breath.
I do wonder when they will get rid of the hundreds of old newspaper machines that litter the property.
Anybody know anything about GateHouse Media? Seems like they own a lot more papers than Morris did.
I would think the sale would make it much easier to prepare the old property for redevelopment. Since the new ownership would probably not need all that space and would be exclusively responsible for evaluating space needs, relocating staff, negotiating a new lease, and reassessing how many printing presses and other machinery they need to keep, that would make it easier for the Morris family to expedite cleaning up and marketing the site.
As far as a new website for the paper goes, it can't be any worse than the Star-Ledger and Jersey Journal teaming up with other state papers for that NJ.com fucking website - such a pain trying to get localized news and political coverage through all the other regional (plus New York and Philly) stories and bullshit state-focused clickbait.
As I understand it, the T-U had already stated when they put their property on the market, that they were moving their staff to a much smaller facility, ideally located downtown. Without the printing and trucking operations on-site, and the reduced size of editorial, advertising and administration, this makes perfect sense. Also, this is freeing up valuable riverfront property for higher and better uses.
I am not a supporter of the paper's more conservative positions but I have noticed it's all relative. I think it is more moderate/progressive/objective than it was when Morris first bought the paper and surely more than when it was still owned by SCL/CSX. Editorial pages aside, I think the paper still does the best job of in-depth and breadth of reporting on local issues. Not saying it couldn't do more or I wouldn't like to see some other things covered but compared to the alternatives, not much else in its space. Their articles still make a big impact on our community. Witness the many snippets posted here on MJ. So, I hope they continue to hang in there, publishing daily, as a vital part of our community's dialogue and source of info. I know the reporters I have met put their heart and soul into their work and do so for very little financial reward.
I think the sad thing about newspapers is people are taking them for granted and when many are no longer with us, only then will they be fully appreciated, and then it will be too late to revive them. We owe much of our country's dialogue, transparency and culture to the pace-setting of newspapers.
Just a wild thought: If CSX wanted to consolidate lots more people into its downtown HQ's from the burbs or elsewhere, this might be an ideal place for them to expand to given the size and location of the parcel if a developer did a multi-use with some office space. The humor would be having an FEC RR track running between this parcel and their current tower :).
Also, wonder what the odds would be of the City requiring the reopening of the McCoy's Creek cover-over?
Local papers and local TV news only have a couple of assets to work with.
High School Sports
Investigative Reporting (usually focused around politics.)
Everything else is newswire or newsfeed based and that can be obtained electronically.
Quote from: spuwho on August 09, 2017, 06:16:47 PM
Local papers and local TV news only have a couple of assets to work with.
High School Sports
Investigative Reporting (usually focused around politics.)
Everything else is newswire or newsfeed based and that can be obtained electronically.
I beg to differ. There are hundreds of local stories I find of interest in the course of a year in the paper. Citizen's good and bad deeds, business and organizational news, land use issues, events, obituaries, historical retrospectives, educational and social issues, local issues making national news, blood and guts, things to do, restaurant reviews, impact of Federal, State and City laws and actions, transportation, infrastructure and military issues, local gardening, etc. You must "read" the paper in 6o seconds if all you read is high school and investigative reports. It's sad to see such narrow interests in our own community and may be at the crux of why papers are suffering so. People seem more and more disconnected from their surroundings. Maybe that's why things aren't better than they are. We are a metro area of over 1,000,000 mostly industrious people doing things 24 x 365. Plenty of news with a little interest and digging.
By the way, I would suggest most of us also get our State news via the local paper given there is no "state paper." That's a whole other ball of wax to play with.
Quote from: spuwho on August 09, 2017, 06:16:47 PM
Local papers and local TV news only have a couple of assets to work with.
High School Sports
Investigative Reporting (usually focused around politics.)
Everything else is newswire or newsfeed based and that can be obtained electronically.
Yeah, that seems like a pretty bizarre opinion to me, too. No offense, but it seems to speak more to your lack of interest in a wide variety of things than it does the limited offerings of local news.
Quote from: river4340 on August 10, 2017, 08:36:02 AM
Quote from: spuwho on August 09, 2017, 06:16:47 PM
Local papers and local TV news only have a couple of assets to work with.
High School Sports
Investigative Reporting (usually focused around politics.)
Everything else is newswire or newsfeed based and that can be obtained electronically.
Yeah, that seems like a pretty bizarre opinion to me, too. No offense, but it seems to speak more to your lack of interest in a wide variety of things than it does the limited offerings of local news.
No offense taken, but it is a pretty broad remark based on a couple of sentences. "Bizarre" is a
stephendare term. Been a while since anyone has used it around here.
I actually have a extremely broad sense of interests which can be met electronically or going to libraries and bookstores. In my experience here in Jacksonville local news only meets the above.
You should have asked me where else I get my information instead of making a judgement so quickly.
Anyone else have their posts pulled on Jacksonville.com?
Quote from: Noone on August 10, 2017, 12:38:06 PM
Anyone else have their posts pulled on Jacksonville.com?
Why oh why would anyone pull your posts?
Quote from: acme54321 on August 10, 2017, 01:44:39 PM
Quote from: Noone on August 10, 2017, 12:38:06 PM
Anyone else have their posts pulled on Jacksonville.com?
Why oh why would anyone pull your posts?
Cuz he reads like a bot.
Quote from: spuwho on August 10, 2017, 10:31:43 AM
Quote from: river4340 on August 10, 2017, 08:36:02 AM
Quote from: spuwho on August 09, 2017, 06:16:47 PM
Local papers and local TV news only have a couple of assets to work with.
High School Sports
Investigative Reporting (usually focused around politics.)
Everything else is newswire or newsfeed based and that can be obtained electronically.
Yeah, that seems like a pretty bizarre opinion to me, too. No offense, but it seems to speak more to your lack of interest in a wide variety of things than it does the limited offerings of local news.
No offense taken, but it is a pretty broad remark based on a couple of sentences. "Bizarre" is a stephendare term. Been a while since anyone has used it around here.
I actually have a extremely broad sense of interests which can be met electronically or going to libraries and bookstores. In my experience here in Jacksonville local news only meets the above.
You should have asked me where else I get my information instead of making a judgement so quickly.
So how do you find out about, say, local business news? Or follow the Josh Phillips court case that's going on now? Or read a great feature about black and white boy scouts coming together in the time of segregation?
Quote from: river4340 on August 10, 2017, 10:16:23 PM
Quote from: spuwho on August 10, 2017, 10:31:43 AM
Quote from: river4340 on August 10, 2017, 08:36:02 AM
Quote from: spuwho on August 09, 2017, 06:16:47 PM
Local papers and local TV news only have a couple of assets to work with.
High School Sports
Investigative Reporting (usually focused around politics.)
Everything else is newswire or newsfeed based and that can be obtained electronically.
Yeah, that seems like a pretty bizarre opinion to me, too. No offense, but it seems to speak more to your lack of interest in a wide variety of things than it does the limited offerings of local news.
No offense taken, but it is a pretty broad remark based on a couple of sentences. "Bizarre" is a stephendare term. Been a while since anyone has used it around here.
I actually have a extremely broad sense of interests which can be met electronically or going to libraries and bookstores. In my experience here in Jacksonville local news only meets the above.
You should have asked me where else I get my information instead of making a judgement so quickly.
So how do you find out about, say, local business news? Or follow the Josh Phillips court case that's going on now? Or read a great feature about black and white boy scouts coming together in the time of segregation?
JBJ, Daily Record for local biz.
As forJosh Philips and Cub Scouts, now you are asking where my interests reside versus where I get my information.
JBJ and Daily Record are local newspapers
Quote from: river4340 on August 11, 2017, 10:18:26 AM
JBJ and Daily Record are local newspapers
Really? Who knew??
Quote from: BridgeTroll on August 11, 2017, 10:28:31 AM
Quote from: river4340 on August 11, 2017, 10:18:26 AM
JBJ and Daily Record are local newspapers
Really? Who knew??
I think he was stating that because Spuwho said you only get high school sports and investigative news/local politics with local newspapers and then proceeded to mention local newspapers as his source for business, legal and social news when prompted.
Quote from: Jim on August 11, 2017, 10:38:57 AM
Quote from: BridgeTroll on August 11, 2017, 10:28:31 AM
Quote from: river4340 on August 11, 2017, 10:18:26 AM
JBJ and Daily Record are local newspapers
Really? Who knew??
I think he was stating that because Spuwho said you only get high school sports and investigative news/local politics with local newspapers and then proceeded to mention local newspapers as his source for business, legal and social news when prompted.
Thanks Jim... Spuwho is one of the most well read, well informed posters on this site. He is well aware of the local newspapers and their content/quality. Not sure where river was going though...
Ok, lets parse a little.
The T-U is a daily general news publication. So it covers a range of topics on the local, regional and national level.
To me its news value is high school sports and local investigative reporting,of which much is politically based ( like the Keane pension scandal)
That is where the value ends for me.
JBJ is a trade journal which has a strictly business focus. It does not cover sports or does investigative journalism.
The Daily Record is technically for the recording of legal transactions that require local publication. Its "news" comes from only a few sources.
Duval County Clerk
Press Releases
Karen Brune Mathis
Ms Mathis used to be at the T-U and had a great column on the local biz scene until she left.
That leaves local TV.
Perhaps its my experience with local TV in other cities, Ihave watched all of them and probably only WJXT comes close. The rest are good for 2 things. Sports and Investigative Reporting, usually involving a talking skirt sticking their mic in the face of a restaurant owner where 2 roaches were found.
Anything they get off the national news wires I read several hours prior via a Google news feed.
Some of the TV reporting seems to come from the "Odd News" websites where a cat saved the baby from an attack of a raccoon with rabies. Video at 11.
The rest seems to be the "if it bleeds, it leads" realm. No follow ups, no investigation, unless JSO spoon feeds it.
Where is the journalism on the sources of gun violence? Where is the research on the family origins in Jax on high death frequencies?
How many calls to the media were made about Eureka Gardens before it was reported? The mayor and Marco Rubio had to come before anyone else did.
What else do I read?
On average i read about 30-40 publications a week, and probably another 40 monthlies on top of any web research.
Agree or disagree, it seems to work for me.
Quote from: sanmarcomatt on August 11, 2017, 12:46:19 PM
Quote from: spuwho on August 11, 2017, 12:29:08 PM
That leaves local TV.
Perhaps its my experience with local TV in other cities, Ihave watched all of them and probably only WJXT comes close. The rest are good for 2 things. Sports and Investigative Reporting, usually involving a talking skirt sticking their mic in the face of a restaurant owner where 2 roaches were found.
C'mon. A little harsh. What about Ken Amaro? He fights for us. When the evil doer doesn't return his phone call, sometimes he even calls again.
Ken is the exception hence the reason I said "usually".
But he is more of a consumer advocate than an investigative journalist. In other words I dont think you will find him investigating city hall unless someone cant get their garbage picked up.
I dont mean to be harsh, honestly.
I grew up in Chicago in the 1970's where TV journalism was so competitive as was the newspapers. In fact the Chicago Tribune was doing some political corruption reporting and I emailed them a lead a few years ago. The reporter emailed me back in 2m and wanted my phone number and peoples names to interview. (Yes, Project Maximus!)
I sent a text on a fire in progress here in Jax to a TV station and they said thanks and would you text back with a photo. I was like huh? Get your lazy butts out there and cover it! It was a serious fire!
Its just more laid back around here.