Trib melds newspaper, TV operations in Fla.

By Marcelo Duran
Associate Editor


Tribune Co. is experimenting with a new business model in south Florida it hopes will bring together the best of both worlds for print and broadcast advertisers.

Last March, Tribune merged the broadcast and interactive operations of its Miami television station, WSFL-TV with the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale.

The goal, said Sun-Sentinel President and Publisher Howard Greenberg, is to woo more viewers and advertisers and attract more Web traffic.

“It’s very indicative of the creative thinking of the new management in Tribune Co,” he said. Greenberg, who also serves as interim publisher of the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel, was named general manager of WSFL as part of the combination.

“They are rethinking the entire media business and what we need to do be successful in the future.”

About 40 people who work for the station, a CW affiliate, will move into the Sun-Sentinel’s building later this year. It’s the first time Tribune blended television, print and online operations under one roof, Greenberg said.

“It’s all about integration and leveraging each other’s assets, both in content, promotion and sales,” he said. “It’s also about providing value for our clients that they can’t get anywhere else in the market.”

Multimedia ad packages

Greenberg said that there are tremendous cross-promotional opportunities in offering potential advertisers a one-stop print, broadcast and online package.

“The advertising community wants a lot of things. They want flexibility, so being able to offer an advertiser one contract with all the assets between the newspaper, television station and online is huge to a client,” he said.

The advertising, marketing and research staffs of the TV station and newspaper will remain separate but they are now working side-by-side in the Sun-Sentinel’s building.

Broader range

The merged operations will reach a broader range of demographics, Greenberg said, citing the Sun-Sentinel’s slightly older audience and WSFL’s younger one.

“We’ve now married to each other’s demographics, which gives us a broader range to offer an advertiser,” he said. “It allows others to have more of the same demographic with an overlap in demographics. We are bringing more to the table.”

The Sun-Sentinel will also use its online presence to drive traffic to the WSFL site.

“It’s another avenue to expose our video because the paper’s Web site has a much broader reach than WSFL’s Web site,” Greenberg said. “We think that we can leverage the substantial page views the Sun-Sentinel gets on its Web site into broadening the reach of the WSFL Web site.”

Greenberg said the Sun-Sentinel hit 40 million page views for the first time in March.