Wendell Barnhouse takes buyout

"Pro-bono journalism" ....That's a pipedream, and you know it. I'm not knocking it. It's nice in theory. But you know it won't happen. And that's why this business is going to die a painful, agonizing death.

 

What's a pipe dream? That an NFL writer might write about a little leaguer? Mitch Albom has made a career of it.

 

There are many in this business who already find themselves covering the pros on weekends, the preps Monday-Friday.

Now it's just gonna start a trickle-up effect to the big boys.

 

You are right.

They want to read about their OWN little kids' baseball game. But they don't give a shit about anybody else's little kids' baseball game.

Hence, the problem with local coverage.

I agree with your premise, though. In this climate, every inch of newshole should be optimized to serve the greatest good. And sending a staffer to cover a national event lots of times isn't the answer. Lots of times it would be better give greater billing to that high school event.

But it doesn't work if you take it to your extreme.

 

Wendell is a good person and an aggressive reporter who has just kept getting better over the years. Not that he was ever shabby---far from it. But once he found his niche at the S-T about 20 years ago, he just kept sharpening his skills and improving his voice to where he had become one of the best national-college guys in the business.

So, in the last two weeks, the S-T has shed itself of Barnhouse, John Sturbin and Bob Hood. I've worked with all three and the one thing common to all of them is that they wasted very few words in covering their beats. They delivered the beef.

Best wishes to all you guys.

 

True, true.

I think the biggest culprits, actually, are major college sports. Some of those beats are just flogging a dead horse, over and over again.

 

But you can cover stories that are local and aren't just little league.
My town has a miracle league. The kind of stuff that will make you cry just to watch.
Kids in wheelchairs playing baseball but it is so much more than that.
That's the kind of story that deserves huge play. You send the sports staff's best writer and the best photog you can find and tell them space doesn't matter. Write for as long as you want.
Hell, make it a series.Send the columnist, send two.
The bigger of the two local papers won't touch it.
Sports editor says it isn't sports.
Of course that dude is also a massive douchebag who'd rather write about his hardworking staff than say the actual sports being played in town.
Actually to call that guy a douchebag is an insult to douchebags everywhere.

 

Again, I'm not arguing here people. This is what SHOULD be done. (By the way, envoking Albom is silly. Average Joe college beat writer isn't given the space to do features like he does, and we all know it. Poor analogy. Not to mention the fact that space is kinda at a premium now, and you're dealing with stodgy, status quo editors who have no foresight and are afraid to change and think out of the box - what led us to this point of our business being on life support). As much as mommy and daddy want to clip out pictures of little Jimmy or Suzy playing soccer, your diehard normal fan will toss those stories aside, sit on the can each morning and get right to what he wants ...tell me if the Cowboys won, tell me how Big Papi did the night before, etc.

 

But jobs as publishers/corporate puppet slashers will still be plentiful.

 

That goes without saying.

I think the people with the most job security are the preps writers.

Almost anything else you can get from AP or one of the news services.

 

The thing to do is become a publisher/corporate puppet slasher.

Then come back on here and mock us.

 

Or hire you to shine our shoes, which is something some of them are already thinking (and they've got to be smart enough to know what we're thinking of them - and I know, they care about as much as Congress cares about the price of gas).