Changes in Memphis

[Moderator1]

From The Pipeline:

{Former executive sports editor} Gary Robinson will become the Online News Editor. ... will supervise a team of Web-first reporters from the newsroom and online to getting breaking news online before it hits print.

Sports department reorganization. {Executive News Editor} John Stamm assumes supervisory responsibility for sports. Randy Bruce and Geoff Calkins will be named deputy sports content editors.

 

[LATimesman]

Calkins won't be writing? Quite a loss in that regard.

 

[Moderator1]

I've asked for some clarification on that point - can't believe they don't want him writing.

Maybe he wants to give this a whirl. Or maybe it includes writing.

 

[GBNF]

It has to involve writing, right? RIGHT? Thats not fair if it doesn;t. To us, not to him, to us.

 

[steveu]

The CA needs something to spice it up -- but moving Geoff out of a writing spot is NOT it. I sure hope he's still writing stories.

 

[HoopsMcCann]

calkins is fantastic. i hope he continues to write

 

[zebracoy]

That's a huge loss if he's not writing. One of the best, in my opinion.

 

[geoffcalkins]

Thanks for the kind words. For good or ill, I'm still writing. John Stamm and Randy Bruce will be doing the heavy lifting. Like any self-respecting hack, I'll second-guess them as much as possible.

 

[RustyHampton]

geoff, that's good to hear.

When do these changes happen?

 

[Your Huckleberry]

Thank goodness Geoff. I thought you were done writing. Your stuff is some of if not the very best out there. Don't ever stop writing! And thanks for clearing up the mis-information that made its way on here.

Now I can at least continue to enjoy my Calkins columns. It's a good day. I wish I had 1/10th the talent you have, but then again, only someone who could leave his Ivy League law degree behind to be a sports columnist has to have a unique perspective on the world around him. I've always thought that put you ahead of the rest because it showed an introspective ability few of us are capable of grasping much less following.

 

[Montezuma's Revenge]

I'm a HUGE Geoff Calkins fan, but that's still laying it on pretty thick. He is quite talented and perceptive, and he's a terrific guy. So are a lot of people who didn't happen to go the lawyer route.

 

[zebracoy]

Your Huckleberry? Or Your Dingleberry?

Just kiddin', bud. ;D

 

[Your Huckleberry]

All I'm going to say is Calkins is that good and I have a great respect for him. If you want to make fun of me for that, you have a lot of idle time on your hands, so be my guest.

 

[The Rules of Golf]

I can't add much more on Calkins, who is perhaps my favorite scribe in the country.

I can add more on Bruce and Robinson. Both are good peeps who work hard and will do well in their new roles, fwiw...

(No, I'm neither one of them.)

 

[scalper]

Agree that Robinson is a good guy and Calkins is a good writer. But this sports section is not what it once was. They used to write a lot of takeouts, really good stuff, and now it's mostly meat and potatoes coverage. The paper went from being one of the best in it's circulation category to being very perfunctory.

 

[Gary Robinson]

Thanks for the kind words. I've already started my new gig as Online News Editor and I'm enjoying the heck out of it so far.

I know I'm going to miss Sports. You don't just leave something you've done for 31 years without missing it, but right now I'm focused on creating the framework for something different. I was blessed to work with some extraordinarily creative and bright talents over my 23 years in Memphis and having the opportunity to lead them for 5+ years was a great experience. As I said to the Sports staff in an e-mail last week, we did some great work together and even had a few laughs along the way. The work we did made me proud. The laughter helped keep me sane. I'm flattered that the editors at The Commercial Appeal thought enough of what we did as a staff to want me to lead this Web-first initiative. The Sports staff at The CA made me look very good.

I'm NOT going to miss earlier deadlines or staff cuts or budget cuts, all of which have arrived in the past couple of years. And I'm not going to miss double overtimes on 8 p.m. starts. But I AM going to miss dealing with Sports journalists on a daily basis. The long-held newsroom perception that Sports is just the Toy Department of a newspaper is alive and well. But if that's the case, why do our stories usually lead the Most Read and Most Commented lists on newspaper Web sites? It's because people bring passion to what they read. And you folks (I've already learned to change the pronoun) bring passion to what you report.

Keep doing great work. As just a Sports reader now, I'll look forward to it!

Gary Robinson

 

[Your Huckleberry]

Classy. I've met Gary only once. Classy then and classy now. The guys at the CA are good people.

 

[Moland Spring]

Apparently, cutting (or rearranging or remixing) some positions in Sports is on the table. At least one reporter may be moved to News. This is not good.

 

[The Rules of Golf]

Agree that Robinson is a good guy and Calkins is a good writer. But this sports section is not what it once was. They used to write a lot of takeouts, really good stuff, and now it's mostly meat and potatoes coverage. The paper went from being one of the best in it's circulation category to being very perfunctory.

Respectfully, I'll defend The CA here. It seems like, in my humble view, it has tried to actually do more of this takeout/feature type stuff in recent years. And The Rules has been reading The CA for a long, long time.

 

[satchmo]

Agree that Robinson is a good guy and Calkins is a good writer. But this sports section is not what it once was. They used to write a lot of takeouts, really good stuff, and now it's mostly meat and potatoes coverage. The paper went from being one of the best in it's circulation category to being very perfunctory.

Respectfully, I'll defend The CA here. It seems like, in my humble view, it has tried to actually do more of this takeout/feature type stuff in recent years. And The Rules has been reading The CA for a long, long time.

I would agree, with the caveat that it seems like there is less enterprise. Keep in mind that I don't view a printed version of the fine pub very often. But, from what I've seen online, there's less "big picture" stuff filling the pages.