Couch from Sun-Times to AOL

Another S-T columnist jumps to the Internet...

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/towerticker/2009/03/greg-couch-becomes-latest-suntimes-sports-columnist-to-join-aol.html

 

Happy for Couch and anybody who gets these opportunities, but man, I don't understand where AOL is finding all the money and/or potential to do all this.

It's good for everybody if it continues; it's just a bit of a mystery to me as to what their story is.

 

I'm happy for Greg. He's a terrific guy. I first met him while he was in Wichita, and he's as personable and humble as he is talented. Best wishes to him, and I can't wait to read his stuff on AOL.

 

Good for Greg. Another good guy who got out before the posse caught up.

 

AOL is making an investment in old school journalism, and not just in sports.
And to add: I wonder if Google is the next company to provide original news content?

http://www.thewrap.com/article/1921

AOL is about to launch a politics site, hiring well-respected political journalists to do reporting and analysis, and thus moving the Time Warner division more aggressively toward becoming a producer of traditional news.

The site's top editor will be Melinda Henneberger, who has been on staff at The New York Times, Newsweek and, most recently, Slate. Henneberger told TheWrap that the launch will take place in April, "pegged to Obama's first 100 days in office."

With cutbacks and collapse dominating most newsprint outlets (the Seattle Post-Intelligencer announced on Monday it would no longer produce a print edition), finding talent for an online portal has been almost an embarrassment of riches.

AOL’s site will be “polypartisan” and focus initially on commentary rather than breaking news, Marty Moe, senior vice president of AOL’s MediaGlow content division, told TheWrap.

"AOL is investing in a big way in news and in old school journalism," Henneberger said. The goal is "quality news sites that have zero aggregation, original content, that pay writers a living wage, and that pay bloggers."

 

That's crazy talk. [/pick a newspaper publisher, any newspaper publisher]

 

There is widespread speculation Time Warner will spin AOL off, so this is a logical response. Your Web portal has to have value added to compete as a stand-alone. News is valuable.

 

Hey, if it provides opportunities for top displaced people, great.

 

Big loss for the Sun Times, but I guess there won't be a Sun Times at this time next year anyway.

 

http://corp.aol.com/press-releases/2009/03/aol-s-fanhouse-adds-major-league-talent-its-editorial-roster

 

Very classy goodbye column by Couch. He's always been a class act.

Chicago, you were heard
Bears, Cubs, departing columnist can attest: Fans wield real power

April 3, 2009
BY GREG COUCH gcouch@suntimes.com
You did it, Bears fans. You did it. The Bears have traded for Jay Cutler, the young stud quarterback from Denver, at a price of two first-round draft choices, a third-rounder and quarterback Kyle Orton. It's a heavy price to give you what the Bears never have given. It's a price they never would have thought of paying just a few weeks ago.

So why now? You did it, Bears fans.

This is about fan empowerment. Steve Tadych of New Jersey did it. He wrote general manager Jerry Angelo to say so. Tadych loves the Bears, and he told Angelo this is a defining moment, for the Bears and for a fan.

''If the Bears do not grab this tremendous opportunity that is right in front of them, I will be forced to find another team,'' he wrote, attaching his letter to the bottom of a note to me. ''It will break my heart, and I wish it would not come to this, but I need to know my team wants it as bad as I do. Twenty-three years of hopeless football mediocrity can now come to an end.''

I got all sorts of e-mail like that the last two days after writing a brief column saying Bears fans need to demand that Angelo make the big deal and finally bring a star quarterback to town.

The truth is, the fans already had been making that demand. The Bears heard you.

Now they need some receivers, a better offensive line and a defense. Sure, that's a lot. But they have just changed the face of the franchise, just started building around a chance-taking, Pro Bowl star quarterback.

Finally.

V for voice ... and victory
But this isn't really about Cutler. It's about you fans and whether you have a voice.

The answer is this: Absolutely. You have power. Fans need to know that. Many of them saw this as their moment to stand up and shout. Before Thursday, Erik Tinoko wondered if the answer was to boycott the Bears to pressure Angelo. Kevin Tagney wanted me to print an address for Bears management ''to create a mass lobbying effort.'' Jerry Camper wanted me to try to organize a strike at Halas Hall.

I was in favor of that. All of it. That's not to suggest anything started with my column; it did not. But Gordon Lee wrote: ''Since when will the Bears [management] listen to the media and the fans? Sorry, only two chances of it happening...''

It was so galling to figure the Bears would do their usual, that Angelo wouldn't make it happen or the Bears wouldn't pay for it.

This really was a defining moment for the Bears and for Bears fans. Two generations, and not one good, long-term quarterback. How is that possible? How has it been accepted?

This is a particularly great victory to see for Bears fans. After 12 years, this is my last column for the Sun-Times. I'm taking my opinions to AOL's Fanhouse.com, where I'll write about college basketball and football, golf and tennis. In my time at the paper, what I've appreciated most is the connection with readers, the conversations.

Some agree with everything, some disagree. Some want to tear your ears off. Now they all have a quarterback.

Tough love works
It's a balancing act to be a fan. You love your teams, but the Bears wouldn't spend and the Cubs were scalping tickets and the White Sox once said they wouldn't spend until fans paid up.

It has to be a tough love, something I've always felt having grown up here with these teams. For some reason, fans have to fight their teams every step to get their respect. For far too long, the Bears have disregarded their fans' interests to do things their own, failed way.

How had Angelo managed to get a contract extension without ever having landed a quarterback? Chicago let him.

It doesn't always work. A few years ago, I wrote about the Cubs running their dirty ticket scam. There was real power in the way fans stood up to their team. The scalping shop had to bring in security. In the end, though, the Cubs won the lawsuit over their own fans. But the Cubs were humiliated, and maybe that held them in check some other way.

Maybe not. But at least Cubs fans fought the fight.

How about those decades of Cubs losing? It has been only since the choke in the Bartman game that fans started making demands. They booed the Cubs as they left the field in the first round of the playoffs two years ago. And they were angry after an excellent team choked last year. The pressure is on the Cubs now, and they're contending. That's no coincidence.

Tough love.

Blackhawks fans got a delayed response, doing everything to get owner Bill Wirtz to shake free from his stubborn ideas. The Hawks became an embarrassment. But now, with Rocky Wirtz taking over for his late father, home games are on TV and the Hawks are going to the playoffs.

Cutler can do things Bears fans deserve to see but never have. Bears fans didn't allow this one to slip away. Congratulations.

Just my opinion. Thanks for yours. Thanks for listening.

 

This is another reason newspapers are a disgrace. As a fan of the Sun Times and person who lives in Illinois and follows the teams, I was a fan of Couch. I liked his knowledge and his take. It really does make a difference in my desire to purchase the paper any more. You know he'd have stayed if not for the fact newspapers are dying a fast death because of the pieces of shit running them.