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Change Doesn't Always Stink

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By D'ANN LAWRENCE WHITE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 8, 2007

By D'ANN WHITE

My co-workers quickly pegged me when my friend, Mary, presented me with a copy of the bestseller book, "Who Moved My Cheese?," last week.

I'd read the book before. Media General even presented a "Who Moved My Cheese?" seminar at our office. It still doesn't make change any easier for me.

Especially, as my colleagues were quick to point out, when you are "Hem," the emotional little person in the book who whines and whimpers through the entire transition.

Yep. That's me. I'm sentimental to the point of saccharine. If I had my way, friends would never move away, children would never grow up and grandparents would never die.

But the practical side of me understands that change is good; change is necessary.

It's not as if I haven't experienced it before. In my 22 years with The Brandon News, the paper has been owned by Jefferson Pilot, Scripps Howard, The Tribune Co. of Chicago and Media General.
In my years with the company, I've been asked to start two new newspapers. I stood helplessly by as the Chicago Tribune laid off my entire editorial staff and demanded that I put out The Brandon News and Temple Terrace News alone. That was the same year The Brandon News garnered the General Excellence award from the Florida Press Association. I still relish the flabbergasted expressions on the faces of the FPA directors when they called "the staff" forward to accept the award and I trotted up by myself.

Then there was the time we published The Brandon News three days a week at the behest of former Tampa Tribune publisher Doyle Harvill.

I say all this by way of announcing some changes that will take place next week.

First, let me assure you that The Brandon News, which has been dedicated to bringing local news to the community for 48 years, will continue doing just that.

However, it will be doing so under the name The Brandon News & Tribune.

Yes, people have been asking why we haven't simply combined our Brandon News and Brandon Tribune editorial staffs since we work in the same building at 505 W. Robertson St. anyway and seem to serve the same purpose: to cover local news. We've asked ourselves the same question.

Well, the powers that be are finally doing it.

The staff will work under the able leadership of bureau chief Susan Anastasia.

Sue's headed the Brandon zone for five years and is not only a great editor and manager but is a warm, caring person. Really, I'm not saying that just because she's going to be my supervisor. I feel perfectly comfortable speaking for all of the staff when I say we are excited, and relieved, to have Sue as our boss. If you haven't yet met her, please stop by and say "hello."

At the same time, I'm having one of those sentimental attacks. My old boss, Russ Holecek, whom I've worked with for more than 10 years, will be heading to Ruskin to become bureau chief of the South Shore News & Tribune, and I'm going to miss him.

The makeup of the new Brandon News & Tribune staff will come as no big revelation to Brandon News/Tribune readers. You already know us.

There's me. I'll continue writing columns and features but without the editorial, administrative and managerial responsibilities that keep me tied to my desk and away from the community and what I truly love doing.

Then there are Tom Brennan, Yvette Hammett, both well-known, longtime Brandon Tribune reporters; veteran Trib photographers Jim Reed and Greg Fight (Greg actually began his career at The Brandon News), reporters Linda Chion Kenney, Scott Rupp and Laura Frazier, whom you know well from The Brandon News side; and news clerks Felix Martinez and Terry Dickelman. And, of course, you will continue to see Derek Maul, Dawn Zamanis, Cheryl Kuck and other local columnists.

OK, I admit, it doesn't seem like an awful lot of change, certainly nothing for little "Hem" to get emotional about.

Well, here's a change for you. There will be no more Brandon zone sections inside the Tribune. Instead, The Brandon News & Tribune will come out twice a week. It will be distributed free to all residents on Wednesdays and to all Tribune subscribers on Saturdays. Nonsubscribers can find the paper in racks throughout the community Saturdays.

Hey, that's a big change, right?

And they made us all take new photos for the masthead and our columns, much to the dismay of Tribune photographer Jason Behnken who was assigned the unenviable task of taking our photos.

When Laura Frazier and I went downtown last week for our modeling session, poor Jason got a lesson on why you never, ever let women in their 40s choose their own digital photos. He finally got us out of there by threatening to charge us $69.95 for re-shoots.

I'm sure there will be other changes at the paper as well. They'll probably fiddle around with the design and add more stuff to the Web site to make it easier to use and attract more reader participation.

After all, the whole idea behind these changes is that the big guys up in the big offices have discovered something you and I have known all along. In today's transient society, people need a sense of community, a sense of belonging. They want to know who their neighbor is and what's being built down the street. They want to know what clubs they can get involved in and what charities need volunteers. In a nutshell, people want to know they are a part of something.

The big guys in the big offices call it "hyper-local." We just call it "community news," and we've been doing it for 48 years. We plan to keep doing it with more staff, more frequency and more opportunity for the community to interact.

By the way, in the book, "Who Moved My Cheese?," Hem ends up adjusting just fine.

D'Ann White is a columnist and reporter for The Brandon News & Tribune.

D'Ann White is a columnist and reporter for The Brandon News & Tribune.

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