Jeff Shelman leaving Star Tribune

Jeff Shelman, who used to be a sports reporter at the Star Tribune before taking over the higher education beat, is leaving the paper to become the Media and News Service Director at Augsburg College.

He will essentially be the primary public relations person for the academic side of the institution.

I'm lucky to have gotten to know Jeff through this site, and I wish him all the luck in his career transition.

 

If strong reporters like Jeff are leaving newspapers, this profession surely has tanked.

 

I remember reading his stuff during his too-short tenure with the Raleigh News & Observer.

Another big loss for the profession. Good luck, Jeff.

 

Shelman's a class act.

Another big loss, but good luck, Jeff!

 

Good dude. Best of luck.

 

Jeff helped me on several projects over the years and was always a pro ... good reporter, clean copy, deadline always hit with room to spare. Sad to lose good ones, but with some of the cluck PIOs currently stalking America, it sounds like a fair trade.

 

Let's make sure people know the timeline here, something Jeff probably won't offer from the high road:

- The Star-Tribune tells Shelman he's not a sports reporter anymore. In its downsizing and reorganizing last year, it moved him out of the department and made him choose from some newsside options (subject to approval) for how he would spend his days.

- Jeff chooses higher ed beat and does a nice job on it. Doesn't change the fact that it was forced on him, and his sportswriting career was interrupted at least. Big loss to that section.

- Jeff is put into frame of mind by newspaper business overall and Minnesota paper in particular to leave! Smart move on his part, stupid move by the people running the newsroom. They and others like them can do this or worse to any one of us. Today you have a national rep that you earned as a very good sports journalist, tomorrow you're sent off to a suburban bureau or the cops beat and you cannot do a thing to stop it. Hardly ever any persuasion or payoff or promise of future opportunity. They will say it is for the good of the paper or even the readers. But it probably isn't for the good of you, if you had other career goals in mind. It might just be for the good of the beancounters if you get put in a role that you so dislike or so hurts your career that you leave without waiting for a buyout.

Now they can replace Jeff with someone who might aspire to a career covering higher ed (paper wins) and probably will be paid less (paper wins). See, it's a win-win!

 

Yeah, I figured I would try to write so people could read between the lines. Maybe if I had written "being moved to" sted "taking over" the higher ed beat.

Regardless, Jeff's made a good move for him in the current climate. And that's the awesome part.

 

Joe, is that really how Shelman's move to news went down?

I just can't imagine a sports editor letting that happen to someone of Jeff's caliber.

 

Shelman was a buck stud in sports; I had the opportunity to work with him in a way-too-limited role on some of his golf duties. He was a buck stud on the higher-ed beat.

And he'll be a happier buck stud in his new digs, which should allow him time to work on that golf game of his, where he's anything BUT a buck stud

Meanwhile, the Strib loses another valued employee and is worse for it.

Imagine that.

 

Congrats to Jeff, one of the best people and reporters in college sports.

The worst part is papers like the Star-Tribune don't even realize how much they're losing when reporters like Jeff leave the business. By the time they do, it will be too late.