The changes have begun at Roanoke's largest daily newspaper. Today, the first under new ownership, there was a story on a mass English Department resignation at VMI written by a reporter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, a paper owned by Berkshire Hathaway, which has just purchased the Roanoke paper.
That suggests the Berkshire Hathaway group of Virginia papers, which includes those in Charlottesville, Danville, Lynchburg, Bristol, Waynesboro and Culpeper, as well as the aforementioned, may well be sharing stories. That makes sense on every level, but certainly for efficiency. The Times-Dispatch has, by far, the best coverage of Virginia politics. Charlottesville's Daily Progress could well save the Roanoke paper from another embarrassment in UVa coverage, like the one it suffered last year with its abysmal coverage of the UVa presidential flap.
Combining assets can be a good thing for more complete news coverage--if Roanoke's executives will use it well. There was a major problem from an editing standpoint with the T-D story this morning: none of the VMI professors who resigned was either identified or interviewed.
I am curious about what changes are being made there.
ReplyDeleteAndrew: Me, too. Especially interested in seeing if the executive editor gets some of her own meds--she's awful, but will they can her? Also, will editorial remain liberal? I understand from some people I know in L'burg that the new owner tends to invest in its new properties, which would be novel in Roanoke.
ReplyDeleteEarly stories said the sale was as of June 1 -- what took effect July 3? Or did I get a date wrong? Appalachian Hathaway
ReplyDeleteActually, now that I've read the VMI story it leaves me hoping that between them the B-H papers will have better sources about colleges in the region than just reading the Chronicle of Higher Education!
ReplyDeleteBob: That was an assumption on my part. It usually takes a couple of months and this is the first real sign of movement I've seen.
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