It’s no secret that these are the digital days from hell for newspapers. More and more advertisers take their business online; fewer and fewer folks read a daily paper. It’s incumbent for print survivors to do more with less. Too many, as we’ve noticed locally, do less with less–a formula for extinction.
So plaudits to the Tampa Bay Times for showing the journalistic initiative and old-school enterprise to staff the recent NATO summit in Chicago with a reporter and photographer. While the Tampa Tribune used AP photos and after-the-fact interviews, the Times went proactive for first-hand coverage, including on-scene observations from Tampa Assistant Police Chief John Bennett.
The NATO summit was, of course, a kind of de facto dress rehearsal for this summer’s GOP National Convention in Tampa. Protecting First Amendment rights, differentiating edgy demonstrators from criminal anarchists, and employing security tactics–from logistics to common sense–were all on display. Notes were taken. Applications considered.
Belt-tightening mandates notwithstanding, the Times was where it should have been–where the news, utterly relevant to this city, was being made. Proper priority. Some things don’t change.