A New 'Republic' in Phoenix

Boy, am I hearing a lot about local TV and print shacking up together these days, the product of both the ease of sharing content in the digital age, and extreme cost cutting by parent companies. Of course, companies such as Tribune and Media General have been co-habitating their stations and newspapers in a common market for years. More recently, the Parkin owned Fox outlet, WTGS, and the New Vision owned ABC station, WJCL, will move into the Savannah Morning News’ digs this summer. (Oddly, all three have separate owners, though the stations are linked through an LMA.)

Down Charleston-Huntington (WV) way, WOWK had a joint newsroom with the weekly State Journal; both are owned by West Virginia Media.

And then there’s Phoenix and Gannett, where Gannett’s KPNX recently moved in with media giant’s Arizona Republic; the two have long had a common website. The marriage spelled the genesis of Republic Media, as the outfit at 200 East Van Buren Street is known.

KPNX got a streetside studio out of its new living arrangement with the Arizona Republic. 

The NBC affiliate and the daily paper share a newsroom on the ninth floor known as the breaking news center. “It’s manned by broadcast journalists, digital journalists and print journalists,” says longtime KPNX GM John Misner, whose new and improved title now reads COO of Republic Media.

We have a profile of the Phoenix market in Monday’s issue.