Indy Star buyouts

It's probably not as big a deal as you might think. A couple years ago, the Courier-Journal did away with its IU beat and started carrying Terry Hutchens articles. The C-J still sends a columnist up to Bloomington from time to time. I'd assume the Indy Star would do the same in West Lafayette.

 

For the paper ... I might be able to see your point, though I think the more beat writers there are the better it is for fans (more options), media, and whether they like it or not, the institutions (in the media's watchdog role. Fewer media, fewer competition, fewer watchdogs).

But on another point, since beat responsibilities are branching out into blogs, podcasts, streaming video responsibilities, etc., it strikes me as incredibly short-sighted for papers to start limiting their own access to beats which are important to their readers.

 

I agree wholeheartedly with you Bubs. More reporters lends itself, in my opinion, to better reporting. Plus, what's important to Indy Star readers for IU may not be the same as C-J readers.

But if any company, not just Gannett, owns papers in adjacent markets, then it only makes good business sense for them to share resources. Good journalism isn't always good business. Unfortunately, good business nowadays trumps good journalism.

 

That's a bit overreactive.
Is it nice for Indy to have a beat person for Purdue? Yes.
But doesn't it make sense for Indy to use a Purdue-based beat writer who lives and works in W. Lafayette and is employed by the very same company that publishes the Star?
If it were my beat, I'd be disappointed, of course. If I were a Star subscriber, I would not expect the product to be greatly diminished.

 

The Indy Star sports section died when they ran off Robin Miller and Bill Benner.

These days, they're just breaking up the skeleton.

 

It would make good business sense if, say, all the Gannett papers using coverage from the West Lafayette person pitched in to PAY for the beat writer. That way, the papers could also have control over stories, travel, whatever. But Indiana's largest paper now is beholden to the coverage and budget decisions of a paper with a much smaller circulation.

And again, the decision tells the many Purdue grads in the Indianapolis area that their school doesn't matter as much as IU, no matter how you justify the business decision. True, IU has many more grads living locally, but as you all know, for better or worse alum readers closely follow the coverage in the local paper. For example, IU supporters always referred to Bill Benner as "Boilermaker Bill."

Not to say a paper needs to appease a fan base. But while my old hometown's pro sports presence has grown substantially since my growing-up days, Indianapolis is still at heart a college sports town. Just in case the big bucks to lure the NCAA headquarters and all the NCAA championships held there didn't give you the hint.

The decision not to send Curt Cavin to Watkins Glen is more defensible because of the limited fan interest in the IRL, even in Indianapolis. But the decision to drop a Purdue is a seismic shift in coverage, and tells Boiler fans they may as well go to Rivals or something to get news on their schools' teams.

 

HackyMcHack,

Are you kidding? That section improved greatly once it rid itself of Robin Miller. This guy was the biggest unethical asshole our business has ever seen. It was because of the good old boys' network that he got his job and maintained it all of those years. Robin had and likely still has a huge gambling problem and routinely bet on the events he covered (primarily auto racing, of course). Benner was a much greater loss.

 

Hey, I've got an idea . . . let's just have AP cover everything! They're there anyway and think of all the money it'll save!

The reason a paper the size of the Star ought to have someone covering one of three major colleges in its state is that having two writers on a beat is better than one. Maybe the Indy guy gets something the W. Lafayette guy doesn't. Maybe they pool their resources. Maybe having competition on the beat will mean better stories. It's the same reason it's better to have two papers in a city than one.

 

Just because Gannett owns the papers in Lafayette (Purdue) and Muncie (Ball State) does not mean Indy should back away. You're right... if it helps to have divergent viewpoints, so be it. Why should I read the Freep's MSU coverage if it's written by the Lansing State Journal? I'll just go to LSJ's website or pick up a Lansing paper, if that's the case.

I still love this paper, but stuff like this makes it harder and harder to justify things.

 

Was not aware of the gambling angle. My bad.

Still, Indy was a good read back in the '90s....

 

Clearly, I'm against a college writer being forced to take a demotion to preps. And I'm against Gannett doing its thing and cutting and cutting and cutting. That said, if the West Lafayette guy is competent (which he must be for this move to happen), might this lead to better coverage? Or at least give the former beat guy time to write enterprise, features, etc.?