Cuts in Hartford?

[Moderator1]

The Pipeline concedes this is unconfirmed - anybody have confirmation, please pass along via PM or email to [email protected]


Unconfirmed, but word is the hartford courant has offered 81 buyouts in the hopes of getting 10. As for sports, Word is, they're eliminating the Yankees and Giants beats, tho not the writers. They will take the coverage from Newsday. The Yankees thing is a huge shock. Biggest franchise in sports, and the beat guy does a fantastic job.

 

[Jersey_Guy]

I hate to say it, but this was probably inevitable. Newsday does a good job with both beats (not saying better or worse than Hartford, but certainly good enough if you're a Tribune bean counter). In the current climate, the surprise is probably that the overlap lasted this long.

 

[Riddick]

I look at the calendar and realize it's second quarter. So, more cuts are likely to come .
This business really sucks sometimes.

 

[get_me_rewrite]

Wow, this would be incredibly short-sighted by the Courant bean counters. Especially the Yankees. Nothing is bigger in Connecticut than the Red Sox/Yankees rivalry. I'd say it's damn close to UConn hoops. Sox/Yanks s actually local, if you look at it realistically. And the Courant does a great job covering the rivalry. Nothing against Newsday, but they cover the Yanks differently. Dom Amore, the Courant beat guy, covers the Yankees very well, and perfectly for that market. I think Courant readers are so divided between Red Sox and Yankees that Sox fans read the Yanks' coverage, etc. And it's written that way. I see Amore's stuff nightly on the wire and it's very very good, especially for tha market. And I just looked at his blog: he attracts Sox fans and Sox detractors are on the Courant's Sox blog. Giants? I can see it. But not the Yankees. Bad move.

 

[casty33]

This was predictable when the paper let go the enormously talented Jack O'Connell, who had been their national baseball writer. He even predicted similar moves at the time.

 

[Frank_Ridgeway]

I was trying out at Newsday in 1987. Their Yankees writer got sick on a road trip. I said, "Isn't Hartford there?" They looked at me as if I'd just suggested something strange but possible. And that's what they did, they called Hartford and got the Courant story. And I thought, geez, I guess they don't interact much, kind of a waste.

 

[Moderator1]

I'm told this is indeed accurate and got a little more info:

No one in sports is going to take the buyout. As far as Yankees, Amore is going to be a NYC enterprise. Dave Heusckel is headed to the Pats to take over for Greenberg. Giants reporter Altavilla is off that beat and headed for UConn women again.

 

[steveu]

I'd be willing to bet Hartford puts more than one body on Red Sox-Yankees games, considering how well that rivalry is played up every year.

Good to see it turned out this way. As we unfortunately know in this business, it could have been a whole helluva lot worse.

 

[chazp]

A good ending for the sports guys/girls. I wish the threads that start with, "cuts," could all end this way.