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Layoffs at SI, The Oregonian, Sacramento Bee and Scranton Times-Tribune today

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by zachpm, May 22, 2017.

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  1. zachpm

    zachpm New Member

    This is right on the heels of layoffs at the Tacoma News-Tribune, Fresno Bee, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, ESPN and a whole bunch of Gannett properties. Seems like sports gets hit every time.
     
  2. bourq25

    bourq25 Member

    Yep. Ouch.
     
  3. Deskgrunt50

    Deskgrunt50 Well-Known Member

    The drumbeat continues. Just sucks.

    Though, for clarity in the thread title, there were no layoffs at SI today. Those happened a couple of weeks ago.
     
  4. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

    Do we know sports was hit in Sacramento?
     
  5. boundforboston

    boundforboston Well-Known Member

    Are layoffs becoming more frequent of late or is that just me?
     
  6. Tweener

    Tweener Well-Known Member

    Remember last year when The Seattle Times laid off a chunk of people? I'd be pissed if I were one of them and then I read this dangerously irresponsible column from someone who survived the cuts.

    I'm just blown away by how lazy this is, at a major metro, in a day when credibility in journalism is more paramount than ever. My editors would have never let this run without me doing a little digging before I flung accusations around.

    http://deadspin.com/seattle-columni...ource=deadspin_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow
     
  7. Joe Williams

    Joe Williams Well-Known Member

    Regarding the Seattle column, I still think it's wrong to berate someone publicly (in front of others) and then apologize in private. Better than not apologizing at all, but it's a little like running someone's arrest on Page 1 and then running the dropping-of-charges on Page 17. Bennett could have done both, frankly, smoothing things over between the two men ASAP and then apologizing in a scrum the next time one gathers around him.
     
  8. Riddick

    Riddick Active Member

    Are you kidding me with this shit! Calkins has already proven himself as a columnist and admits he made a mistake. But to bring up the folks who were laid off and using Calkins as a reason for additional outrage is bush league.
    GTFU
     
  9. Tweener

    Tweener Well-Known Member

    He wrote a column where the premise was based on an assumption -- not fact -- simultaneously hurting his credibility and that of his publication, at a time where journalistic credibility is being brutally attacked. Through his own laziness (not making a simple phone call or sending a text to another reporter for confirmation), Calkins also triggered a boycott of one of the most prominent players in the NFL, who also has a massive influence over the paper's readership, at a time when reporters are being cut in part because of a dwindling audience. Oh, but he apologized so it's all good, right?

    I'm not blaming Calkins for anyone being out of work. I'm saying it's a privilege to write a column for a great paper in a great city, and for those of us still fortunate enough to do it, we should be expected to do it more responsibly than a college freshman.
     
  10. Tweener

    Tweener Well-Known Member

    Definitely. But Bennett may not have seen it that way. Maybe apologizing in private makes it more personal, more sincere. So many athletes make public apologies nowadays that the sincerity is often missing. It's also not like Bennett cursing out a reporter was a massive story that required a public apology.

    It irks me that Calkins would assume that because an apology wasn't made public, there couldn't have been one. That's incredibly presumptuous. Pick up a phone and find out.
     
  11. flexmaster33

    flexmaster33 Well-Known Member

    I work for a paper in the Portland area, and got through the entire spring season without seeing an Oregonian writer at a game ... first time I saw them represented was at the state track championships this past weekend. It's become a shell. Too bad because there's a great history there.
     
    Tweener and I Should Coco like this.
  12. silvercharm

    silvercharm Member

    There's a reason for that: There's very little interest in spring sports. I have a little knowledge of how the Oregonian/OregonLive operates, and in the spring, a good deal of the preps manpower is devoted toward football and basketball, as that's where there is proven reader interest. It covers preps differently than the Tribune chain in that the Tribune weeklies cover games, and very little else, such as features and breaking news. As for being a shell, well perhaps. There was a time when the Oregonian had as many as a dozen prep reporters. The cutbacks are widespread through newspapers, not just Oregonian preps coverage.
     
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