Tribune Cranks Up PR - Lies About Convergence
Ah, convergence. The buzzword that was so hot five years ago and so quickly faded once the newspaper business in South Florida went south. One couldn’t pick up a trade rag, or read a trade blog without reading about Tampa and their “universal news desk” and the fantastic new building that would magically make TV reporters and newspaper reporters mind meld into robo-reporter.
At the same time, dreams of creating a new-style ‘multimedia reporter,’ adept at both television and newspapers, have fallen flat. After three years, only one print reporter regularly produces stories for the TV station, the top-rated in the market.
But that hasn’t dissuaded the people in the Tribune company.Their PR machine is crowing.
Tribune Company today announced that it will join the broadcast and interactive operations of its Miami television station, WSFL-TV (CW39), with those of its Ft. Lauderdale-based newspaper, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, under a single roof to create a media powerhouse serving readers, viewers and advertisers.
Thats right… a powerhouse consisting of the CW and the Ft. Lauderdale newspaper is going to take over Miami as the leading news source.
“This strategy is unprecedented in a major U.S. market,” said Howard Greenberg, Sun-Sentinel president and publisher. “This gives our print, broadcast and interactive operations the opportunity to work together to develop unique content and programming in a variety of areas. Plus, with this combination, there will be no better way for advertisers to reach more people with a consistent message.”
Blah, blah, interative, blah, blah, reach, blah, blah, excited, blah blah, efficiency…