Whither Jean-Jacques Taylor?

I think it was Albert Breer, who himself only stayed a year before moving on. JJT was the lead Cowboy writer before that, then he moved to columnist when Blackistone and Fraley left. (Fraley is back now.) The timeline is a little fuzzy.

 

Those blog jobs are as cush as they get. I interviewed for one a few years ago. I didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of getting it and they hired the right person for it, someone who has done a great job.

Graziano was a great pickup. Not sure I buy that Graham left a cush gig making close to six figures to go back to the Buffalo News, but stranger things have happened.

 

Those ESPN blogging gigs are hardly cush. You get little-to-no vacation time, no breaks from the 5-blogs-per-day quota, you're not a full-time employee, you write very little original material and spend much of your time re-writing stuff of other beat writers, and you have to play ESPN politics. Not to mention, ESPN could pull the plug on the blog project, and you'd be SOL.

 

indeed. they are FAR from cush. espn.com feels like they freakin' owe you. graham is too youn/talented to be happy for long with a gig in which you almost NEVER get to write a story of -- good forbid -- a takeout worth spit. and they don't pay everyone as well as advertized. it's based on how much you're making when they woo you.

with the benefits thing factored in, if you have two young kids, quality of life counts oodles. believe it or no, some folk are very happy living in the buffalo area. i dunno where tim has been based, but it's surely an eye-popping difference between what you get for your buck in the nyc/nj area and western new york. i've never heard jerry sullivan complain about buffalo and he's a tremendously talented writer and seems completely fulfilled.

 

The no original material complaint is a valid one. Most play ESPN politics by passing anything they find out to the main guys like Clayton, Mort and Schefter. It is not a glamorous job.

I know two of the guys who do it very well and they say it's time consuming, but there is none of the pressure that goes with being a beat writer.

It pays between $80K and $110K and they have some strange way where you're able to purchase benefits through them that is basically the same cost it would be if they worked at a place where regular benefits were offered. Yahoo does the same thing for its "employees"

As far as job security goes, at least when they started this thing, they got three-year contracts. I don't know if that's changed since then, but that's better job security that you're going to get at most places.

 

The snow can be a bitch in the winter, but I've been through Buffalo and it isn't as bad as advertised. Short distance to Niagara Falls, and the areas east of the city seem to be developing decently.

 

In other Metroplex news, just learned today that Anthony Andro — who's been pretty high-profile with the Rangers beat — is leaving the FWST and is joining Fox Sports Southwest.

 

um, unless you're on the back-nine looking for an unrewarding gig in which you can't develop as a writer, what appeal does it have? you can't 'break news,' further develop your writing skills, it's a glorified re-write job. except for the highest-paid folks, espn.com would seem to have little appeal if you already have a decent-paying newspaper gig. but it's a GREAT landing spot for all the talented folks who have been or will soon be kicked to the street by the biz we love, whether it be by dying newspapers or failing internet startups.

 

Well, it's an interesting mix of guys they hired. Some of them were among the best beat writers in the country. Some of the latest hires are good, but not on the level of some of the early hires. It was kind of similar with the college bloggers.

My former co-worker who is doing it says it's a sweetheart gig and he doesn't have to travel nearly as much or work as hard as he did when he was working the beat. He's also making $110K, so he has no complaints about that either.

 

I've heard from reliable sources that ESPN.com specifically asks its bloggers not to break news, and to let Mort and Schefter get all the scoops instead. Helps build up those two as the true "insiders."

 

Add John Clayton to that and that's 100 percent accurate.

 

You already know this, but you're far closer to correct than Mizzou is. He did get the three-year contract right, though. Notable, because they expanded the blog from the original "Hashmarks" to cover separate divisions in the summer of 2008, which means those contracts are coming up for renewal right about ... now.

Maybe it's just me, but if I was a guy with a wife and two young children, maybe I'd look for a job which allowed for a vacation day or two in between the beginning of training camp and the Super Bowl. Beat writers have backups. They also get eight home games every year, bloggers with an entire division to cover -- including every "Monday Night Football" appearance by any of the four teams -- not so much.

And if that new job came with not just a chance to write 3,000-word features and front-page centerpieces in the city where I already live, but a Guild-negotiated benefits package? Tough to turn down.

(DISCLAIMER: I am not Tim Graham, nor do I play him on TV.)