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Tribune-Review to reorganize papers
Robert R. Hammond
Nickolas F. Monico
The changes, described to employees in a series of meetings, are designed to help the company operate more efficiently and to enable the newspapers to better serve readers and advertisers, said Edward H. Harrell, the company's president.
"This is a change that is for the better, and one that will allow our company to grow and become stronger," Harrell said.
Plans include a consolidation of some of the newsroom, circulation and management functions of five of the company's six daily independent newspapers and one of its weeklies.
In addition to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and the Tribune-Review, the changes affect the Valley News Dispatch in Tarentum, the Leader Times in Kittanning, the Daily Courier in Connellsville, and the Blairsville Dispatch, a weekly newspaper.
Tribune-Review Publishing also publishes the Valley Independent in Monessen.
Harrell said each newspaper will continue to function as an individual local publication, with each retaining its name and its focus on local news and sports.
"We must never lose the local touch," Harrell said.
All copy desks from the five daily newspapers will move to the headquarters office of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review at the D.L. Clark Building on the North Side.
In addition, newsroom oversight of all business, sports, national and international news will be directed from Pittsburgh.
"We will maintain the strengths of each unique community newspaper while combining those strengths and delivering one dynamic, comprehensive, regional news product," he said.
The changes most likely will involve a yet-to-be determined number of staff reductions, said Harrell.
Tribune-Review Publishing currently has about 1,200 employees, excluding the staff of the weekly publications of Gateway Press Inc., and the Pennysaver and Super Pennysaver, which were acquired in 2003.
The company's audited newspaper circulation total has grown to about 200,000 daily and 221,000 on Sundays.
Harrell expressed confidence the changes will help the company continue to grow.
"This plan will strengthen the company for the future," he told employees. "We will be able to better compete for market share in this highly competitive market, and we will move forward from being a collection of newspapers to having a unified voice in the region."
In conjunction with the editorial changes, the company announced a number of management and personnel changes, including the addition of two new division managers, Robert R. Hammond and Nickolas F. Monico.
Hammond was named to the position of division manager-South, with focus on management of the Tribune-Review in Greensburg, the Daily Courier and the Valley Independent.
Monico was named to be division manager-North, where he will focus on management of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Valley News Dispatch and the Leader Times.
In those positions, Hammond and Monico will be responsible for advertising sales, newspaper production, circulation and day-to-day business operations of each property.
They will report to Ralph Martin, senior vice president and chief operating officer of Tribune-Review Publishing.
Hammond has 20-plus years of experience, including the past year with West Virginia Media Holdings Inc., as chief operating officer of print media and as publisher of The State Journal, both based in Charleston, W.Va. His focus there was developing a portfolio of new publications and improving the overall operations of The State Journal, a statewide business newspaper.
Monico spent almost 10 years with Gannett Co.'s newspaper network in Central Ohio, including a stint as group president from 2000 to 2004.
Most recently he served as president of Media Management Solutions, a print media-consulting firm specializing in business solutions for community newspapers.
The company also announced yesterday that Frank L. Craig, editor of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, has been named editor for all of the company's newspapers, and that Robert Fryer, managing editor of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, has been named managing editor for those publications.
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