Baseball debate turning into a full season of speculation

As soon as it seems dead in the water, the baseball debate in Richmond keeps coming back.

Charlie Diradour extended his hand in peace today to those in the opposite dugout at a news conference he called.

Connecticut, the giant Indian sculpture, looked down over the scene, a thick layer of pollen dusted over its head and shoulders.

“The arguments are over with,” Diradour said to a small audience of reporters gathered in front of the Diamond this morning.

Diradour was an outspoken critic of the downtown stadium plan recently dropped by Highwoods Properties. He founded his own website, BaseballontheBoulevard.com, as an advocacy platform for bringing baseball back to the stadium abandoned last year by the Richmond Braves. Diradour also owns a development company, Lion’s Paw Development, that is active primarily in the Fan District.

Today he announced he was shutting down the Baseball on the Boulevard site and launching Friends of Richmond Baseball to take its place.

“What I want to do is bring both universes together,” Diradour said.

He invited corporations to post their logo on the site to show support of bringing an Eastern League team to Richmond. He also announced he was shutting down his Facebook group and replacing it with Friends of Richmond Baseball, inviting supporters of the Shockoe Center plan to join as well.

Diradour made it clear he still was personally in support of redeveloping the Diamond, in particular a plan by Maryland-based Opening Day Partners owned by Peter Kirk for $28 million. The company has developed as many as 14 ballparks along the East Coast.

“Peter Kirk sent a plan to the administration,” Diradour said. “I call on the administration to at least call Peter Kirk.”

But that plan could have some competition.

The Times-Dispatch reported today that  the Reynolds Packaging Group is pitching their property on the south bank of the James River, directly across from downtown, as a  possible site for a new stadium.

The T-D reports that a Reynolds executive “pointed out the property” to Mayor Dwight Jones and other city leaders as a good location for a stadium. Real estate firm CB Richard Ellis is marketing the sale of the 18-acre property.

City officials said no one has proposed to them an official plan to build a stadium at that location.

Times-Dispatch cuts 5 more staffers

The Times-Dispatch laid off four more reporters and one researcher.

According to several sources at the newspaper who asked that their names not be used because they are not supposed to comment on company policy, the union that represents newsroom staffers refused to agree to skip its 2 percent raise this year. The paper then cut the five positions. Read more

Media in decline, bahh

What was once a side business for a small website development firm has grown from a plucky aggregator to a network of news sites with more than 10 local advertisers. Pharr Out has hired a full-time ad sales person and owner Ross Catrow said it may even be time to add a full-time reporter. Read more

Large round of layoffs at the T-D

The Times-Dispatch told 28 editorial staffers and31 non-newsroom employees Thursday that they were no longer needed and could leave immediately. Several of the laid-off workers had decades of experience, which likely means their salaries were higher than the younger reporters and might be one reason they were cut. Read more

So long, inRich.com

Media General’s fling with the inRich.com domain name is coming to an end. The company plans to phase out inRich.com and re-brand Richmond.com with a similar format, according to information Media General provides to potential advertisers.  Media General owns the Times-Dispatch. Read more

The Times-Dispatch’s Trifecta of Confusion

The whole user generation thing isn’t a great business plan for a newspaper company when users can slam your new product on the day of its launch.

Yesterday Media General split the Times-Dispatch.com from InRich.com, and dozens of comment on the Times-Dispatch’s ridicules the layout and usability. Before Thursday, if you typed in www.timesdispatch.com, you would get bounced to InRich.com, which seemed mostly like an online newspaper with a few bells and whistles (including some video).

Richmonders don’t seem to be buying the new site. Read more

The Spin Zone: PR firms pitch websites but still rely on the printed word

Public relations and media relations professionals are finding that like the mainstream media, they too must adapt and move resources to better tap into online outlets. But they say print has maintained its value and cachet.

It used to be that if you wanted to promote your company or were in the business of public relations, you pretty much knew were to look. You had a few local print publications – the local metro paper and maybe a regional magazine – a few local radio and TV stations and a few national outlets. Now the number of media outlets is ballooning faster than people can keep track of the new options. Read more

T-D needs to update ads

An ad for the Chamber’s event last week is still up on the T-D website. Are they trying to build brand awareness for next year?

Possible blues club in Jackson Ward

According to a Times-Dispatch story, a developer wants to turn the historic Hippodrome Theater in Jackson Ward into a blues club of sorts.

Don’t plan on going to a live blues concert just yet. First, there are already two new venues within a mile – Toad’s Place and the National. Both are also historical restoration projects, and both are part larger music venue groups that bring certain economies of scale. Read more

T-D looks in the mirror

Newspapers have a hard time covering themselves. On Sunday the T-D looked inward. John Reid Blackwell, wrote about the mighty struggles at the paper’s parent, Media General. “In the past two decades, the company’s strategy has been to build a newspaper and television empire in the Southeast and to combine and find collaborative opportunities at its television, newspaper and online operations,” Blackwell writes. Read more