Buyouts claim a huge name: Jackie MacMullan out

Interesting, and sobering, stuff:

http://shots.bostonsportsmedia.com/2008/04/jackie-mack-taking-latest-globe-buyout/

Link fixed.

 

Jeebus. ESPN?

 

Crap

 

Yikes. Romenesko has a couple great links today, one about a guy deciding to stop subscribing to the Boulder paper, and another one about the perception=reality of the fading industry.

 

It probably helps that Skwar is already at ESPN...

Obviously, this is big news. But Jackie Mac will be at ESPN making six figures within the week... The people these buyouts/layoffs really impact are the ones who don't have another job waiting for them when they leave.

 

Exactly. The Globe needs Jackie more than Jackie needs the Globe.

 

you think people buy the globe to read jackie macmullen - please

she's a lovely person - very earnest and nice - and speaks well on tv and radio - and knows basketbal - and she's good at getting people to open up

but way over-rated as a writer - no sense of humor - no wit - no edge - rarely a strong opinion - predictable structure - very nearly plodding

she's not a columnist - espn ought to let her do features

 

Well that was predictable.

come back to the adult table, sparky, when you have something to offer beyond your usual jealousy of writers and your giddiness over another nail in their coffin.

 

This is a loss, but to go big picture it's even worse.

Jackie, Lisa Olson, Selena Roberts... All of the women who have worked so hard to get those column-writing jobs are gone, and they are not being replaced. This is an unfortunate trend now.

I am sure that they will all continue to be productive, and you can certainly argue that they may have greater influence in their next incarnation, but as a writer who came up through print and still loves the feel of a newspaper page between my two fingers, it's hard not to be sad to see the role models getting out of the business.

 

My guess is Jackie will not be replaced. The Globe's mastermind (but he WINS AWARDS!) editor in chief Martin Baron doesn't care for sports, or in fact, columnists of any kind.
It's working great for them so far. Fastest sinking big-city daily in the USA.

 

I wouldn't worry about it though, it's not a big college town.

 

I was thinking the same today looking at the APSE winners.

I tend to think a lot of these papers no longer feel the social pressure to hire a woman columnist at this point. It's not new or novel. It's been done. The readership doesn't particularly care or demand it. You could convince me I'm wrong, but I think I'm unfortunately right.

Jackie will be great anywhere she goes, big loss for the stupid paper that let her go.