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L.A. Kings hire Rich Hammond

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Mr. X, Sep 23, 2009.

  1. buckweaver

    buckweaver Active Member

    Seems like a good move for him. Leaving after 10 years at the LADN.

    Team says Hammond will have full and independent "editorial control."

    http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2009/09/kings_hire_their_top_blog.php

    Here's Tom Hoffarth's take: http://www.insidesocal.com/tomhoffarth/archives/2009/09/our-daily-dread-106.html
     
  2. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    bucky, bucky, bucky ...

    http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/73256/

    That said, your thread title is much better, so you have that going for you :)
     
  3. Moderator1

    Moderator1 Moderator Staff Member

    Another team hires a newspaper person isn't a clear headline??
     
  4. SoCalDude

    SoCalDude Active Member

    Third thread on this ... and it's old news. It's also in the running hockey thread.
    But Rich is a good guy, so maybe he is worth multiple listings.
     
  5. gutenberg

    gutenberg Guest

    Re: Another newspaper person goes over or another team hires a newspaper person

    Tahoe, do you know what happens when you assume?

    You assume I applied for the UCLA job. Wrong. I do know two people who did send their stuff in and, yes, both of them are bitter than they spent time preparing their entries for what ended up being a sham of a process.

    Why advertise a gig if you aren't going to look further than the newspaper playroom?
     
  6. Tucsondriver

    Tucsondriver Member

    The best!
     
  7. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    Threads merged.
     
  8. WriteThinking

    WriteThinking Well-Known Member

    Hammond may not "go easy" on the Kings, but the job will be easy, compared to working on the beat for a newspaper.

    These opportunities for newspaper people can't help but be so, because, despite the fact that Hammond, or others transitioning into similar such jobs, are said to have editorial independence and control, really, how far can it go?

    For example, let's say a coach gets fired, or a player arrested. Who possibly finds out about that before an organizational beat writer? No one, but are the Kings seriously going to allow Hammond to write it up, first and fully, before anyone else, as hard-hitting, pull-no-punches news? And really, is he going to want to? Or be able to, without anyone else looking at it prior to release?

    Let's just say I doubt it.

    And if he can/does do that, how easy can getting information get? He works for the Kings. Presumably, that means he will receive company email, and have more "inside" information than anyone, even a well-plugged in newspaper beat person.

    The set-up will give him almost automatic first dibs on any announcement coming from the organization. There will hardly be a need to "work sources."

    Also, the direct, easy, constant access to sources will make it easy to expand and expound on whatever news comes out.

    This arrangement allows reporters to do the best, most interesting and fun parts of the job, all without really having to do actual reporting, and be reporters, when it comes to the hard stuff.

    It's the best of both worlds, and makes life easy and stress-free, especially because, really, what competition is there?

    In essence, this is a PR job without being an actual PR job, and a reporting job without being an actual reporting job. Why wouldn't a reporter take such a position, especially considering the tenuousness of most actual newspaper jobs these days?
     
  9. MileHigh

    MileHigh Moderator Staff Member

    PaulO writes twice about this.

    http://www.oberjuerge.com/http:/www.oberjuerge.com/la-kings-hire-their-own-reporter-start-of-trend/

    http://www.oberjuerge.com/http:/www.oberjuerge.com/kingsreporter-certainly-unusual-at-the-least/
     
  10. gutenberg

    gutenberg Guest

    Great points by WriteThinking, who is one of the more astute people posting on this site.

    He's someone I would enjoy as a co-worker.
     
  11. sportsguydave

    sportsguydave Active Member

    This seems to be a growing trend in our business.

    And these jobs probably pay more than newspapers.

    But I'm not convinced that these guys will have complete editorial freedom to pursue stories.
     
  12. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    Maybe not, but how many of us would trade an ounce of editorial freedom for a pound of job security?
     
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