Changes at the Sporting News?

[JustSomeDude]

Talk about an evergreen headline...

But I'm specifically wondering about Dave Kindred. He wasn't on the back page of last week's issue, and despite several minutes of searching, I couldn't find a note anywhere in the magazine saying he's on vacation or what have you.

I know the Sporting News is rapidly approaching tree-falling-in-the-forest status, but surely I'm not the only one who noticed. Anyone know what's up?

(A million humble apologies if this has already been covered on the board.)

 

[lantaur]

It is close to impossible to find a list of "experts" on the new Sporting News website, but Kindred is no longer listed on the Yahoo sports columnists page (which has SI.com, Sporting News and Rivals links as well as Yahoo's).

 

[Smasher_Sloan]

If Kindred isn't in TSN, there went the last reason to even skim it.

 

[Cousin Jeffrey]

Maybe one change is that it won't suck so bad. Maybe another change is that they'll go back to newsprint, axe the NASCAR and someone'll give an eff about it.

 

[Ellis Redding]

Maybe he's going to be Rushin's replacement.

 

[zman82]

that'd be nice!

 

[JackS]

Maybe he's going to be Rushin's replacement.

Given the format change at the front of the mag announced last week, it strikes me that there isn't going to be a replacement for Rushin. In fact, it strikes me that the format change is the exact reason Rushin is out. They didn't want a columnist up front.

 

[Screwball]

I was told TSN has let Kindred go.

 

[steveu]

Maybe he's going to be Rushin's replacement.

Given the format change at the front of the mag announced last week, it strikes me that there isn't going to be a replacement for Rushin. In fact, it strikes me that the format change is the exact reason Rushin is out. They didn't want a columnist up front.

Well, there are some weeks they don't have a columnist in the back! What are they gonna do? (rimshot)

 

[Dave Kindred]

As a subscriber my entire reading life, and as a columnist who wrote for the magazine 694 of the previous 695 weeks (taking a day off when I had cardiac arrest), I had an emotional investment in the magazine.

So I hope my leaving somehow helps. Maybe it will save a couple jobs. Maybe it's the first step toward finding an editorial voice that engages readers (though I must admit it's disheartening to be replaced by photographs, and bad ones at that, even one printed sideways!)

I won the Red Smith Award one year, and my newspaper, The National, folded.
This year I was elected to that Salisbury Nat'l Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame, and now my magazine dumps me. So I've learned one thing in all this. I gotta quit winning damned awards!!

 

[Jack_Kerouac]

As a subscriber my entire reading life, and as a columnist who wrote for the magazine 694 of the previous 695 weeks (taking a day off when I had cardiac arrest), I had an emotional investment in the magazine.

So I hope my leaving somehow helps. Maybe it will save a couple jobs. Maybe it's the first step toward finding an editorial voice that engages readers (though I must admit it's disheartening to be replaced by photographs, and bad ones at that, even one printed sideways!)

I won the Red Smith Award one year, and my newspaper folded, The National dead.
This year I was elected to that Salisbury Nat'l Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame, and now my magazine dumps me. So I've learned one thing in all this. I gotta quit winning damned awards!!

Maybe you shouldn't have taken that day off for the heart attack, Dave. ;-)

I'm guessing you'll land on your feet. And I've long thought that you were slummin' it at The Sporting News anyway.

 

[write then drink]

damn

 

[henryhenry]

dave, what is it going to take to save the sporting news? what kind of editorial direction or voice? is it too late? or can it be salvaged?

 

[Jesus_Muscatel]

Dave,

I think I can speak for a lot of us when I say I will miss reading your column in Sporting News.

Mutha****as ain't gettin' another dime from Jesus.

(Obligitory third person reference.)

 

[Dave Kindred]

Now that someone has asked (thanks, HH), I'd say it needs to forget being a bare-bones version of SI and ESPN the Mag. It needs to find a niche and fill it with outstanding reporting.

That is easily said, but done only with brilliant work from editors able and willing to walk away from safe ideas, step onto a high wire, and see if they can get to the other side.

Every piece in the magazine must be as entertaining as it is informative. The magazine -- hell, any magazine in this instant-gratification world -- needs unique voices expressing new ideas. I'd find a way to incorporate bloggers -- I've read a lot of them whose voices, properly reshaped to reporting, would bring life to any subject.

I've gotta run now. Be interesting to read any other ideas on this subject.

By the way, Kerouac, I never had a heart attack. No muscle damage of any kind. Just a arterial blockage revealed by my passing out. Cardiac arrest, in my case, happened 5 minutes, 36 seconds into a stress test. No pain, just passed out. The only anxious moments in my whole affair came when I did the next stress test to see how the stent was working. When I got past 5:36, I actually laughed and had to explain to the technician why. Been fine ever since.

 

[buckweaver]

I'd say it needs to forget being a bare-bones version of SI and ESPN the Mag. It needs to find a niche and fill it with outstanding reporting.

TSN used to have one, of course: The Base Ball Paper of the World.

With Baseball/Sports Weekly's demise, TSN should try to be the "Bible of Baseball" once again.

 

[Dave Kindred]

I'd say it needs to forget being a bare-bones version of SI and ESPN the Mag. It needs to find a niche and fill it with outstanding reporting.

TSN used to have one, of course: The Base Ball Paper of the World.

With Baseball/Sports Weekly's demise, TSN should try to be the "Bible of Baseball" once again.

My favorite line on that thought was in a George Will column. He referred to the Bible as "The Sporting News of religion."

 

[Editude]

The sports week in light review doesn't work, so anything would be an improvement.

 

[Smasher_Sloan]

dave, what is it going to take to save the sporting news? what kind of editorial direction or voice? is it too late? or can it be salvaged?

More of that sassy "Fly" ****. Yo, yo, yo.

 

[Ellis Redding]

I'd say it needs to forget being a bare-bones version of SI and ESPN the Mag. It needs to find a niche and fill it with outstanding reporting.

TSN used to have one, of course: The Base Ball Paper of the World.

With Baseball/Sports Weekly's demise, TSN should try to be the "Bible of Baseball" once again.

Buckdub, you know "base ball" is my favorite sport, but the two of us are in the overwhelming minority. While I wouldn't say baseball is dying, it's certainly become stagnant. The labor stoppages, exorbitant contracts, skyrocketing ticket prices, World Series games ending after 1 a.m. EST, the increasingly high costs of playing it as a youth -- all of these things need to be fixed for it to truly become "America's pastime" again. It hurts, but it's true.