Media Giants Centralize Production

By Robert Channick, Tribune reporter
When the Hartford Courant lands in driveways this fall, it will look much as it has for years. Local news, sports, business and features, interspersed with photos and ads — a familiar daily snapshot of history unfolding.

But the nation's oldest newspaper, a local institution since Connecticut was a colony, will be different. Much of the Tribune Co.-owned Courant will be made in Chicago.

Joining the struggling industry's trend toward centralization, the Hartford paper announced plans this month to outsource all copy editing and design to Tribune Co.'s Chicago Tribune, eliminating 19 newsroom positions — about half related to the outsourcing — according to Rich Graziano, the Courant's CEO and publisher.

"It was a meaningful and significant cost savings," Graziano said.

The move to consolidate editing and design is gaining traction as newspaper groups search for ways to offset plummeting ad revenues.

Gannett, Media General and Tribune Co. are among the larger companies ramping up centralized editing, which is hailed by some as a necessary evolution and decried by others as weakening local journalism.

"Most companies are either doing it or looking at it," said Ken Doctor, a media industry analyst and author of "Newsonomics."

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