Hartford Courant

Eric Kallgren    Boulder Colorado USA

Posted at 9:47pm on Thursday, May 21st, 2009

Can Jeff Levine save the Harford Courant? Andy Bromage of the Hartford Advocate posed the question about Connecticut's largest newspaper on May 19, 2009:

"Jeff Levine arrived three weeks ago at a Hartford Courant that veteran staffers say they don't even recognize.

Gone are the daily's state politics writer, its prize investigative editor and the reporters who covered state police, religion, the environment and so many other beats that made the Courant as comprehensive and relevant as any metro daily in the country.

In its place is a newsroom with lots of empty desks and a new boss whose orders are to make the Courant the best "platform agnostic content" provider on the planet.

Levine, a 46-year-old executive with a marketing background, is the new "senior vice president/director of content" for the Courant and Fox 61 news, both owned by the bankrupt Tribune Co. He comes armed with corporate media buzzwords like "platform agnostic" and with a reputation for substantially growing newspaper audiences in Florida.

His arrival coincided with the departure of the Courant's top two editors, Cliff Teutsch and Bobbie Roessner, who took a combined 60 years of expertise with them when they left May 4. He assumes command of a dramatically shrunken and demoralized staff at a time when the industry seems no closer to curing what Tribune CEO Sam Zell dubbed the "live virus" infecting newspapers.

Nonetheless, Levine seems optimistic, if extremely guarded, about what he sees as the bright future of interactive news."

The full story:
http://www.hartfordadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=13039

Eric Kallgren    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 11:31am on Friday, April 3rd, 2009

The Tribune Company is merging its newspaper and TV operations in Hartford, the company reported on March 30, 2009:

"Tribune Company today announced that it will bring the operations of the Hartford Courant and those of WTIC-TV and WTXX-TV together under one roof later this year, creating the largest print/broadcast news-gathering operation in Connecticut. The combined entities will be led by Richard Graziano, senior vice president/general manager of the two television stations, who has been named publisher of Courant effective immediately.

"This is the future of media," said Randy Michaels, Tribune’s chief operating officer.
"Whether in print, over the air, or online -- the delivery mechanism isn’t as important as the unique, rich nature of the content provided. Bringing these media properties together will enable us to bring more resources to our news coverage, improving and expanding what we can offer readers, viewers and advertisers in the area."

Following the move, WTIC-TV and WTXX-TV will begin broadcasting news from a state-of-the-art, high-definition studio located in the Courant’s newsroom. Construction of the studio is expected to begin later this summer. WTIC-TV also plans to expand its news offerings by adding two half-hour broadcasts, one at noon and another at 6 p.m. Between them, the two stations currently provide 33 hours of news each week to viewers in Hartford.

Graziano has overseen Tribune’s Hartford television stations since 2005, and last July was promoted to senior vice president/general manager, assuming additional oversight responsibility for the company’s stations in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. He is a veteran broadcast executive with a proven track record of success in Connecticut. WTIC-TV has grown market share consistently over the last four years, and its 10 p.m. news is #1 with viewers.

The Courant reaches more than 800,000 consumers in print and online each week and is the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States. WTIC-TV and WTXX-TV are the only television stations remaining in Hartford that originate local news from the city, an important distinction for Graziano.

Steve Carver, who has served as the Courant’s publisher since November 2006, will leave the company following a short transition period. "