Columnist discusses his layoff

[HanSenSE]

Matt James, Fresno Bee sports columnist.

http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/05/04/2376507/gearing-up-for-my-next-gig-fan.html

 

[Stitch]

It's one of the best things after leaving. You can just be a fan.

 

[rmanfredi]

That's a really good story about having some perspective - both as a journalist and a person.

Having grown up in Fresno, I've become progressively bummed out at what's happened to that sports section over the years. Their coverage of the Fresno State BB hiring process this time around was particularly weak. Laying off Matt James certainly isn't going to help this at all.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Reading this made me very, very sad...

The columnist can be reached for eight more days at [email protected] or (559) 441-6217.

I'm so glad I refused to write a final column. There was nothing wrong with what this guy wrote, but I'm just glad I didn't do it.

I remember my SE... "Don't you want to tell the readers why you're leaving?"

I said, "I don't fully understand why I'm leaving, why should I try to explain it to someone else?"

 

[HanSenSE]

That's a really good story about having some perspective - both as a journalist and a person.

Having grown up in Fresno, I've become progressively bummed out at what's happened to that sports section over the years. Their coverage of the Fresno State BB hiring process this time around was particularly weak. Laying off Matt James certainly isn't going to help this at all.

There's been a lot of talent going through there the last 20 or so years: Andy Katz, Adrian Wojarnowski, John Carzano and John Branch, to name a few off the top of my head. Now I think its down to two writers on preps, two on Fresno State, one split between JCs and Fresno State and one on outdoors who also covers the Fresno Grizzlies.

 

[mrbio]

High quality read, thanks for posting. Always enjoy to read the peripheral and creative angles of sports people over the nuts and bolts game stuff.

 

[Fran Curci]

Very good final column.

It sounds like Fresno Bee sports, although cut down to the bone, is better off than its big brother in Sacramento.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Very good final column.

It sounds like Fresno Bee sports, although cut down to the bone, is better off than it's big brother in Sacramento.

Fresno (Katz, Prisbell, Passan, etc...) has produced better talent than Sacramento has over the years.

 

[Point of Order]

That column is excellent. Understated. Personal, yet entirely appropriate. Well done, sir.

 

[Jesus_Muscatel]

Reading this made me very, very sad...

The columnist can be reached for eight more days at [email protected] or (559) 441-6217.

I'm so glad I refused to write a final column. There was nothing wrong with what this guy wrote, but I'm just glad I didn't do it.

What Mizzou said. What I will do. I just know it won't work for me.

Godspeed, Matt, best of luck in the future.

 

[Q-Bert]

I appreciate the kind words here on the board. It's tough sledding out there. You go a couple years without an APSE win and you're expendable, I guess. =)

I personally hate the "hello" and "goodbye" columns. Difficult to say anything interesting or meaningful. After hiding in my room for a couple days, though, I decided I didn't want to let the Bee off with a two-paragraph brief on A-15.

This was layoff round No. 5, or something, and dozens and dozens of hard-working men and women at our shop, from security guards to copy editors to press men to cafeteria workers, had taken the walk before me. We had to cancel our monthly poker game because more than half the guys had been laid off.

I guess I just wanted there to be a face on it somehow. And I think people who follow a column deserve more than to wonder after a couple weeks what happened to the local sports columnist after six years. I'm sure it was a bit self-serving, too. A lot of mail has come in. I wanted the editors and publishers to be reminded that storytelling matters. That trimming to the minimum number of employees necessary to distribute a paper isn't the same as surviving.

Anyway, I'll try to stop in from time to time. Always enjoyed SportsJournalists.com. Off to write a couple books.

Matt James (Fresno Bee sports columnist for 6 more days)

 

[sporting_guista]

I appreciate the kind words here on the board. It's tough sledding out there. You go a couple years without an APSE win and you're expendable, I guess. =)

I personally hate the "hello" and "goodbye" columns. Difficult to say anything interesting or meaningful. After hiding in my room for a couple days, though, I decided I didn't want to let the Bee off with a two-paragraph brief on A-15.

This was layoff round No. 5, or something, and dozens and dozens of hard-working men and women at our shop, from security guards to copy editors to press men to cafeteria workers, had taken the walk before me. We had to cancel our monthly poker game because more than half the guys had been laid off.

I guess I just wanted there to be a face on it somehow. And I think people who follow a column deserve more than to wonder after a couple weeks what happened to the local sports columnist after six years. I'm sure it was a bit self-serving, too. A lot of mail has come in. I wanted the editors and publishers to be reminded that storytelling matters. That trimming to the minimum number of employees necessary to distribute a paper isn't the same as surviving.

Anyway, I'll try to stop in from time to time. Always enjoyed SportsJournalists.com. Off to write a couple books.

Matt James (Fresno Bee sports columnist for 6 more days)

Good luck man, sounds like you have it together. Enjoy being a fan again, it's certainly not a four-letter word.

 

[Jesus_Muscatel]

OK, y'all, here's the deal.

There's a lot of dynamics here involved in Matt's decision to write his final column, the least of which, from what I can tell, is that he "just gets to be a fan" or has even considered bailing on the relentless, aggressive approach by which most guys (and ladies) in the biz swear by:

You know, bust some folks up. Say, Ali-Terrell, or better yet, Holmes vs. Randall "Tex" Cobb.

1. Fresno's gotten drilled by layoffs, "hard-working men and women," as Matt put it, including the likes of cafeteria workers, copy editors, sports writers and press men. (Funny I didn't see any mention of high- and/or mid-level management, but maybe that's my own trip, so I digress.)

2. Matt wants there "to be a face on it somehow." Fresno readers have followed him over the years. He's off to write a couple books. People in other parts of California, from other parts of the country, might stop by the area and wonder what happened to Matt and some of his colleagues. Without a definitive column of record, word of mouth isn't passed along as easily.

3. To quote Matt, "this was layoff round No. 5, or something." Our place has had four. I was part of No. 4, last Monday. After a while, the process gets to be more than a little draining. No, check that. It sucks.

4. This is the part that I think I skimmed over the first time I read Matt's post in this thread. "After hiding in in my room for a couple of days, though, I decided I didn't want to let the Bee off with a two-paragraph brief on A-15."

That's the one, natch, that I relate to the most. You know, what Connery told Costner, "they put one of yours in the hospital, you put one of theirs in the morgue. That's the Chicago way." Or even better, what D-Day told Flounder in Animal House, "We have an old sayin' in Delta. Don't get mad. Get even."

OK, now I feel better. Sometimes the only tonic is an unexpected pep talk, off the cuff or otherwise, goin' out and kickin' ass and takin' names.

 

[dirtybird]

1. Fresno's gotten drilled by layoffs, "hard-working men and women," as Matt put it, including the likes of cafeteria workers, copy editors, sports writers and press men. (Funny I didn't see any mention of high- and/or mid-level management, but maybe that's my own trip, so I digress.)

No, see you can't fire the management types. They are responsible for making sure the paper makes money and stays viable. I mean without them, we'd have drops in circulation and round after round of soul-sucking layoffs... oh wait.

 

[WriteThinking]

I might be the only one, but I thought the column was a little weak. I was nice, and understated, I guess, but almost too much so.

Was it a final column about his layoff/sendoff, or was it an obit for Darrell Copeland III? Couldn't really tell, and didn't think the two concepts went together very well.

His perspective on Copeland's death did not really lend any perspective or connection to the other issues being referenced.

 

[drakescoffeecake]

this is definitely a "state of the industry" benchmark.

that the columnist at the Fresno (everybody's farm paper; home of the f'n stud) Bee is laid off before he's scooped up for some big-boy job tells you all you need to know about how things are going.

(yes, columnist at the Bee is a big-boy job in itself, but you know what I mean.)

Ten years ago, getting this job meant you were on your way. Now ...

Woj, big NJ paper, then Yahoo. Canzano, SJ Merc, then Portland. Branch, NY Times.

James, laid off.