After months of debate, Florida papers The St. Petersburg Times and The Miami Herald are forming a joint statehouse bureau in Tallahassee, Fla., starting in December.

Both papers have experienced a shrinking bureau of full-time staff at the statehouse due to cost cutting.

The joint effort, "would allow us to increase coverage in ways that neither organization could manage separately," said Neil Brown, executive editor at the St. Petersburg Times.

The combined bureau will include "six staff members, with bureau chiefs from each paper alternating leadership responsibility, in consultation with editors from each newsroom," according to a press release.

Both papers are also "considering launching a state news website."

Source: Editor and Publisher