BRIEFS

McClatchy may consolidate desks: The copy-desk function at the five California daily newspapers of The McClatchy Co. may be consolidated, a union blog post revealed last week. A web posting by the co-chair of the Sacramento unit of the Pacific Media Workers Guild (Newspaper Guild/CWA) indicates that management will make the decision within a few weeks whether to centralize the copy desks of the Sacramento Bee, the Fresno Bee, the Modesto Bee, the Merced Sun-Star and the San Luis Obispo Tribune and where the desk will reside. Executives of the Sacramento paper want the centralized desk in their newsroom. The Guild note indicates that management is proposing that if the desk is in Sacramento, a new unit be established for copy editors, page designers and Internet developers and that current employees would keep their pay and benefits. A number of publishing companies, including Gannett and Scripps, have centralized copy-editing and page-makeup functions.
*Fla. paper changes name: The St. Petersburg Times is no more: as of yesterday, the paper is now known as the Tampa Bay Times. The Times, an independent paper owned by the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, said it changed its name "to better describe the newspaper it has already become." In a statement, the company said that "three-fourths of Times readers live outside of St. Petersburg." The Times first used Tampa in its name in 2004 when it launched a free youth tabloid and called it Tampa Bay Times/tbt*. Media General's Tampa Tribune sued the Times for trademark infringement, as a predecessor paper of the Tribune carried the Times name. Under a 2006 settlement, the Times had five years of restricted use of the Tampa Times name and unlimited use thereafter. The company said that ancillary endeavors, including its naming rights for a Tampa sports arena and its philanthropic fund, would change names to include Tampa as well.

*Gannett buys iPhones for reporters: A Dec. 21 memo from the head of Gannett's U.S. newspaper division indicates the company has purchased "thousands" of new digital devices for company journalists. A memo signed by Bob Dickey, president of the division, Kate Marymount, vice president of news and Maribel Wadsworth, a digital news executive, and published on GannettBlog.Blogspot.com, said the company had purchased Apple iPhone 4S devices, Apple iPad2 devices and other technology that will aid in newsgathering. "These new tools will help our journalists meet the demands of the new news cycle, one that requires agility in real-time reporting, social media and greater emphasis on video storytelling, further increasing our competitive advantage," the memo said. Additionally, the company said it will provide "a robust investment in comprehensive training" for the new technology. The memo said the equipment would "begin arriving in January."
*FCC again tries ownership changes: The Federal Communications Commission in the week before Christmas proposed to relax its rules regarding the cross-ownership of a daily newspaper and a TV station in a top 20 market. The rules preventing cross-ownership have been in place since 1975 and while the FCC tried to change them in 2007, a federal court struck down the changes because it believed the commission did not provide for adequate public input. A number of companies, most notably News Corp. and Tribune Co., have sought and received waivers to the rules. A number of consumer groups have come out against the proposed rule changes and the commission says it will take extensive comments on the changes and has not yet scheduled a vote. The commission is down to three members pending Senate confirmation of two nominees following two retirements.