Wilbon leaving Washington Post

Post sports section took another hit with this departure.

Depth used to be the Post's strength. Not so much anymore...

Only the best to Messr. Wilbon...

 

I've read Wilbon for the better part of my adult life. Didn't always agree with him, but always respected his opinion. Also enjoyed his weekly online chats.

I'm surprised he lasted this long with the paper. Figured he'd leave long before now with all his TV work.

 

It was only a matter of time. Keep up the good work, Mike.

 

Further evidence, not that any was needed, that the one-time destination jobs in newspapers now are Triple-A stops on the way to better things.

What are the chances that the Post's next hire in sports will log 32 years there? Those days are done.

Also, I always applaud people who leave a job rather than hanging onto it and giving it second- (or third-) class status. More honest than double-dipping.

 

Wilbon's been trying to leave the Post for years for honorable reasons. For years it was "Oh, it's OK that you'll be writing less. Oh, it's OK if you want to do PTI and a zillion other shows."

One of the true good guys in the business and one of the few of the elite level columnists who would actually travel to all the major events rather than watching from his couch.

Wilbon isn't the writer Plaschke and Posnanski are. But I remember hearing him described as the best columnist on deadline and I don't know if a nicer thing can be said about a writer.

 

If you talk to writers who have interned at the WP they'll all tell you how friendly, helpful and gracious Wilbon is.

Honestly, I don't think I've ever heard someone say a bad word about the guy, which in this business, is unheard of.

 

Mike would not remember me at all, for we only met a few times at Maryland games and at the Olympics, but he was always a tremendous mensch whenever I had conversations with him. I've never heard a story of him big-timing anyone. I can't say this for sure, but I suspect he hung on with the Post longer than he needed to, just because he loved newspapers. I'm very happy for his success.

 

I heard he stayed because they basically begged him not to leave.

 

Shouldn't they be, though? The pay, honestly, is sickening in newspapers. Wilbon is an elite columnist at an elite, elite newspaper. He makes well, well into six figures. But for most of us - even reporters at major, major metros - the pay is a joke compared to the pay at the top level of most other professions.

When I wrote one of the first magazine pieces I ever wrote, I about fell off my couch when they told me it was going to be $500 for 800 words. Absolutely staggered.

 

Yeah, I used to routinely get $1 a word for magazine pieces in the late 1990s. Unless you're a really established writer or if we're talking about GQ or Esquire, I'm guessing you don't get close to that very often these days.