Chronicle, Express-News to merge Austin bureaus
The San Antonio Express-News announces a merger of sorts between its Austin bureau and the Chronicle's:
The Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News are combining their state government bureaus in Austin, effective immediately, in an effort to dramatically expand original reporting and investigative efforts -- in print and online.
The move combines the Chronicle's four statehouse reporters with the three reporters from the Express-News to create a seven-person bureau that will illuminate issues in state government, provide insight into how decisions are made in Austin and investigate the use of public money in Texas.
Chronicle Bureau Chief Clay Robison will serve as chief of the combined operation; Express-News Bureau Chief Peggy Fikac will become deputy bureau chief. Chronicle reporters R.G. Ratcliffe, Janet Elliott and Polly Hughes will also be part of the new bureau, as will Express-News reporters Lisa Sandberg and Gary Scharrer.
“We welcome the opportunity to align more closely with our sister newspaper,” said Jeff Cohen, editor of the Houston Chronicle. “This merger will allow us to effectively double the resources we use to report on state government.”
This is potentially a good move for both Hearst dailies, which should be able to deliver more comprehensive, focused coverage of Austin and Texas politics as a result. It would also have been a good opportunity for the Chronicle to move Clay Robison to the editorial page exclusively and let Fikac run the news operation in Austin. Now, both newspapers are in the awkward position of their Austin bureau chief serving as a lefty Sunday editorial commentator on the people he allegedly covers objectively during the week, a situation that the Chronicle's own reader representative has criticized.
Next, Hearst might consider consolidating its Washington, D.C. operations. The Chronicle's D.C. bureau manufactures news from Washington seemingly as often as it breaks news, but perhaps a merged, comprehensive Hearst operation in D.C. could produce better work. Who knows, the merged operation might even rank a more prominent position than the Chronicle's fifth-row seat in the White House briefing room (with other major regional papers, as Julie Mason put it).
UPDATE: KHOU-11 posts AP coverage of the move. The Chronicle still has no coverage that I can find.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/19/06 08:01 AM | Print |
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