Megan Schnabel

Neil Harvey

Cardinal Raids Roanoke Times Again

Got a note while walking a bit ago that Megan Schnabel, Metro Editor at The Roanoke Times, will now work for Cardinal Press, the new, online-only staff-raiding upstart operated by ex-RT employees.

Markus Schmidt, who has covered politics for the Times-Dispatch in Richmond, will do that for Cardinal, it was announced this morning, so the raiding appears to be spreading outward to other Lee Enterprise-owned properties.

Megan, a solid professional, was a business writer/editor at TRT, who took my post as editor of the Blue Ridge Business Journal when I left to co-found a business magazine (FRONT) a few years ago. She didn't last, moving back inside the Times building, and the BRBJ failed under Times leadership. It had thrived for more than 20 years with its business model, called by the then-publisher of TRT Debbie Meade "a failed business model," which it was not. That publisher is now with Cardinal in a top, founder's position.

I mentioned to the executive news director, Dwayne Yancey, the other day that Cardinal was giving The Times quite a bit of competition and he said that was not true, since it was online-only and didn't accept advertising. I think I'm right in my assessment. Cardinal's raiding and other job opportunities are hurting a Times news product that also today lost Neil Harvey, a solid courts reporter for quite a while, to Radford University.

Right now, The Times is in the emergency room from a news standpoint and Cardinal hasn't even published its first edition (and won't for a bit).

Already, it is leaning heavily on other Lee Enterprises properties ("sisters" to The Times) for news coverage, some of which has to do with the Roanoke/New River Valleys, most of which doesn't. It has replaced Doug Doughty's long-time excellent coverage of the University of Virginia sports with dispatches from the Charlottesville Daily Progress, what was once considered a small, inferior paper to TRT. Not any longer.

News from Richmond and the General Assembly--long a strong point for TRT--is being handled by the Times-Dispatch and Roanoke mentions are all but incidental. Schmidt's coverage, we are promised, will heavily emphasize Roanoke/New River issues and representatives.

Harvey's loss adds to an ever-increasing bailout from a newsroom that went for more than 10 years without giving employees a raise and only recently accepted a union. We'll see how effective that union is shortly.

I'm waiting to hear about the future of people holding the newsroom together at this moment: Columnist Dan Casey (the only reason a lot of people get the paper); high school sports reporter Robert Anderson, who does a yeoman's job on a difficult but vital beat and has big readership; Lawrence Hammack, Jeff Sturgeon, Alicia Petska, Casey Fabris, Alison Graham, Mike Gandolff, Tad Dickens, Mike Allen and Todd Jackson. Two publications at Smith Mountain Lake (magazine and newspaper) and the photo department have two employees each. That's the bulk of what's left and boys and girls, that's not enough--even though these people are superb journalists.

I haven't seen any reference to sports coverage by Cardinal Press or the other publication that recently announced its birth in Roanoke, former reporter Henri Gendreau's Roanoke Rambler, which is publishing now. The Times leans heavily on sports, but when Doughty left under what I understand was a questionable circumstance after more than 40 years with the paper, even that titan got shaky.

This journalistic soap opera isn't over. In fact, it is my guess is that we're nearing the end of the beginning and at the end of the end, one will be standing and I won't predict which. That's waaaaaay above my pay grade.