The Political Whore

Holy sagging revenues, Batman, it’s a fire sale over at The News Center on Parker Street in downtown Tampa as the Media General-owned properties shed newscasts, employees, sections and real estate. The Tampa Tribune is shutting its bureaus and killing the BayLife magazine on Sunday; the TV station is cutting a newscast.

Details:

First, News Channel 8 is killing its midday newscast. Anchored by Gayle Guyardo and Bill Ratliff, the 11 a.m. newscast just wasn’t attracting advertisers, station officials said in a TBO.com report.

[News Director Don] North says the cutbacks at WFLA are the result of the continuing decline of advertising that is affecting television stations throughout the country.

“Advertisers just aren’t buying the 11 a.m. newscast,” he says. There has not been a decision made on what will replace the newscast, he added.

“Midday” anchors Bill Ratliff and Gayle Guyardo will continue on the “News Channel 8″ morning newscasts and contribute to online coverage.

More shocking is the loss of the Tampa Tribune,’s Sunday BayLife section, home to Twitter-champ Jeff Houck’s food writing. Not surprising from the standpoint of a dearth of ads in the section, but stunning from a readability angle. It is the only section of the now-miserable Sunday Trib that was worth reading, for Houck and for the gardening info alone, stuff you don’t see a whole lot of in other local publications.

The story gives no indication what will happen to that content, so I’m checking to see what I can hear.

Updates after the jump:

UPDATE: Word is that Trib’s Pasco reporters were told the bureau in that county is closing. No details on what happens to the scribes stationed there.

UPDATE 2: TBO.com updates to include this:

More details were also unveiled about changes to the Tribune and other print products.

•Production of lifestyle publications, Skirt and Flair, will cease.

•The Saturday newspaper will now be formatted like the Monday through Friday paper. That means the news section will be one section now, and the stand-alone Business and Views sections will cease. Business news will appear on the back of the Sports section, as it does now during the week.

•The format of the T.V. book will be slimmed down but still include all the listings and some editorial.

•BayLife Magazine will be eliminated.

•News bureaus are closing, although the sections they produce won’t change. Staffers will either work out of one of two satellite offices or out of the main newspaper office in downtown Tampa.

The Brandon and Plant City offices will be sold to generate cash, said Janet Coats, vice president of news for the Florida Communications Group.

The other offices are leased, she said, and not renewing those leases will save money.

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