In a double-barreled, possibly related development, The Baltimore Sun replaced Editor Timothy Franklin on Monday with content development czar J. Montgomery Cook and acknowledged Tuesday that it would begin sharing content with its former rival, The Washington Post, in January.
“It’s unusual when you have two newspapers so close together and, in effect, competing to some extent,” Maryland-based newspaper analyst John Morton said of the inter-paper deal. “But it’s a way to try to expand both papers’ reports without spending any more money. And newspapers are under financial stress today.”
Sunday circulation numbers in two key competing counties
Anne Arundel Howard
The Baltimore Examiner 44,790 48,345
The Baltimore Sun 28,435 27,742
The Washington Post 20,302 17,773
Source: Baltimore Examiner, CAC Audit September 2008; The Baltimore Sun and The Washington Post, ABC Audits September 2007.
Franklin, 48, who has presided over five years of Sun downsizing that reduced the 384-person newsroom by 159 positions, resigned to take an endowed chair at Indiana University, his alma mater, and start a sports journalism center at the university’s school of journalism.
“During [Franklin’s] five-year tenure, the newspaper won numerous journalism awards,” Sun Publisher and President Timothy Ryan said in a hail-and-farewell memo. “His most recent achievements include the comprehensive reinvention of the Baltimore Sun, a ground-breaking partnership with WJZ-TV and the launch of a breaking news center on baltimoresun.com.”
Currently the Baltimore Sun Media Group’s content development director and a reputed packaging and innovation expert, Cook, 44, helped start the paper’s free, youth-oriented daily, b.
Calls to Cook and Franklin were not returned.
“It’s not a complete shock,” Brent Jones, Sun unit co-chair of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, said of the content deal. “Several south Florida papers recently agreed to share content. It’s sort of the way the industry’s going these days.”
Jones said it was too early to assess any labor relations implications to the story-swapping agreement but that he has requested a meeting with Cook in the matter. Washington Post reporters also belong to the guild.
“I don’t know him that well,” Jones said of Cook’s labor relations reputation. “He comes more from the visual side and I’m on the reporting side. But he seems like a cooperative guy who wants to strengthen his players.”
According to a Washington Post Web site report on the content-swapping deal, only selected stories, photos and news content would be shared.
