Inland Empire implosion

[Bob Smith]

Heard that with buyouts and layoffs, the Riverside Press-Enterprise and San Bernardino Sun have lost 5-6 sports reporters since July and are now just left with a handful, none of whom even live in San Bernardino County -- the largest county in the mainland US. Anybody have any more info on this bloodbath?

 

[Doc Holliday]

Got an offer from them a few years ago ... thank God I didn't take it.

 

[ChrisLong]

The only one I heard so far is Alan Steele, local college writer for the PE. He posted his departure on Facebook. Layoff, not buyout.

**edit** buyout, not layoff.

 

[HandsomeHarley]

Spent 14 formative years in the Inland Empire ... freshman at Riverside-Arlington, sophomore-junior at Riverside-North and graduated San Bernardino-Pacific.

The area was a cesspool then and has only become worse, especially in San Berdoo.

You couldn't pay me enough to work there.

 

[Songbird]

Spent 14 formative years in the Inland Empire ... freshman at Riverside-Arlington, sophomore-junior at Riverside-North and graduated San Bernardino-Pacific.

The area was a cesspool then and has only become worse, especially in San Berdoo.

You couldn't pay me enough to work there.

But are Fontana and Ike any good in football still?

 

[Editude]

Most of my formative (and post-formative) years were spent and lived in the I.E., at various stops, and this spot on the cycle is distressing - yet not surprising. Tradtional media properties no longer offer a mid-level career arc in many markets, and the nature of Riverside and environs - secondary yet massive, mildly educated, limited shared news interests - make the area even more vulnerable to any economic dips.

 

[wicked]

Tradtional media properties no longer offer a mid-level career arc in many markets

I think that's all markets -- and pretty much every field -- nowadays. Screw the middle.

 

[MileHigh]

But are Fontana and Ike any good in football still?

Not for many years, but back in the day, that was *the* game of the year in the I.E.

 

[MileHigh]

Spent two stints totaling more than a decade at The Sun. Sad, but not surprising, to hear this news. It was a great paper last century. Yes, you can say that about a lot of places.

I'm told all of the prep writers were offered buyouts as part of a "restructuring" and a "thinning of the herd."

At least one prep writer took it. The Sun sports editor took it, though he will still write on a freelance basis.

Also told, this was the only area where they could cut to make the bottom line. There are now nine prep writers total for the 11 SoCal papers in the news group.

For the Sun and P-E, there are three writers (one a columnist) and one person who has two writing shifts a week.

The "plan" is to do features, notes and analysis in print. Game stuff would be blogs and social media-type stuff.

And I'm hearing there will be more buyouts/layoffs before 2018, not just at the Sun and P-E, but the prep writers walked the plank first before the start of the school year.

 

[Fredrick]

Spent two stints totaling more than a decade at The Sun. Sad, but not surprising, to hear this news. It was a great paper last century. Yes, you can say that about a lot of places.

I'm told all of the prep writers were offered buyouts as part of a "restructuring" and a "thinning of the herd."

At least one prep writer took it. The Sun sports editor took it, though he will still write on a freelance basis.

Also told, this was the only area where they could cut to make the bottom line. There are now nine prep writers total for the 11 SoCal papers in the news group.

For the Sun and P-E, there are three writers (one a columnist) and one person who has two writing shifts a week.

The "plan" is to do features, notes and analysis in print. Game stuff would be blogs and social media-type stuff.

And I'm hearing there will be more buyouts/layoffs before 2018, not just at the Sun and P-E, but the prep writers walked the plank first before the start of the school year.

Fredrick, who has a good feel for this stuff IMO, senses prep coverage has been deemed highly expendable by the suits. Time for some innovative folks (prep versions of The Athletic?) to try to fill the void? Me thinks there always will be advertisers willing to support high school kids.

Do u all agree this is starting to appear to be a place the big metros and the middle sized papers have deemed expendable? Kind of like the old golf writer back in the day? I'm serious. Preps are gonna be gonzo soon. No prep coverage at all.

 

[Screwball]

There are now nine prep writers total for the 11 SoCal papers in the news group.

The L.A. Times covers all of Southern California high school sports with ONE prep writer.

 

[Della9250]

The L.A. Times covers all of Southern California high school sports with ONE prep writer.

For an area that rich in talent, that's a joke.

 

[SnarkShark]

The L.A. Times covers all of Southern California high school sports with ONE prep writer.

He has minions everywhere.

 

[swingline]

I spent one stint at The Sun (we also put out the sports section of the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin) in 2005-06. Just at the Sun we had three or four prep reporters, someone who covered the Class AAA games, Paul O. doing columns and Jeff Gluck and the SE covering auto racing. Plus a ****load of us on the desk.

While I was there, we moved from the downtown office, where you could see a homeless man pissing on a Dumpster across the street -- plus have a huge rat smack your chair with its thick tail, PLUS see a bat flying through the office on the last night there. We moved into a gleaming new office off the 15 (I think) that was about half full at its height.

It's sad to see what has happened to a pretty good paper.

 

[Spartan Squad]

He has minions everywhere.

And let's be honest, he really does the greater LA area not all of So Cal. He's not getting games south of Orange County or north of the Grapevine unless it's a big crossover or a state playoff game.

That said, he still has a ****load of schools to get results for.

 

[HanSenSE]

Just spitballing here, but doesn't prep coverage = the younger readers they seek? Or is someone looking at the analytics and saying "Everyone reads about the Dodgers/Lakers/USC-UCLA, let's double down on them." I'll take my answer off the air.

 

[MileHigh]

I spent one stint at The Sun (we also put out the sports section of the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin) in 2005-06. Just at the Sun we had three or four prep reporters, someone who covered the Class AAA games, Paul O. doing columns and Jeff Gluck and the SE covering auto racing. Plus a ****load of us on the desk.

While I was there, we moved from the downtown office, where you could see a homeless man pissing on a Dumpster across the street -- plus have a huge rat smack your chair with its thick tail, PLUS see a bat flying through the office on the last night there. We moved into a gleaming new office off the 15 (I think) that was about half full at its height.

It's sad to see what has happened to a pretty good paper.

Yes, the 15. And yes, 399 N. D St. was, um, not the greatest of places around. Haven't been over there in years so I can only imagine how it is today.

The old building had some character, and, yes, the rats. I do miss those days of reporters coming back in from when we covered 10-15 games, put the scores up on a whiteboard and we had four zones. Those were some shifts from hell.

 

[AngelofSD]

The P.E. was a great paper as recently as the late 2000s, 100K-plus circulation daily that covered all the major beats (Lakers, Dodgers, Angels, UCLA, USC, etc) and won multiple APSE awards every year. Now after multiple sales (A.H. Belo to Freedom to Digital First) it's been reduced to a small-town community newsletter.

Allan Steele, the PE's colleges writer and David Zink, former sports editor/columnist, took buyouts. So did Jeff Parenti, who was splitting a preps/coordinator role. Also they had Gabriel Rizk relocate to take a job on the SCNG universal desk in Monrovia earlier in the summer. They'd also had a few other writers leave to take other jobs in the past year or two and never filled the positions. Zink, Steele and Parenti had probably close to 60 years experience between them covering Riverside County and had community ties that were irreplaceable for breaking news and finding features.

Believe that leaves Eric-Paul Johnson, Landon Negri (preps) and Jim Alexander (columnist) as the only full-time sports staffers left at the PE. Three. It was triple that size two years ago. PE had a sports staff of over 40 as recently as the mid-2000s.

Not sure exactly what went down at the Sun. Pete Marshall and Michelle Gardner were really doing it all by themselves. Haven't seen anything announcing they're leaving.

Either way, just a sad, sad development for all.

 

[wicked]

Just spitballing here, but doesn't prep coverage = the younger readers they seek? Or is someone looking at the analytics and saying "Everyone reads about the Dodgers/Lakers/USC-UCLA, let's double down on them." I'll take my answer off the air.

What younger readers? Kids just follow each other's Twitter/Snapchat feeds and get the scoops there. It's on teh socials medium, so it must be true.

 

[Old Time Hockey]

Believe that leaves Eric-Paul Johnson, Landon Negri (preps) and Jim Alexander (columnist) as the only full-time sports staffers left at the PE. Three. It was triple that size two years ago. PE had a sports staff of over 40 as recently as the mid-2000s.

Not sure exactly what went down at the Sun. Pete Marshall and Michelle Gardner were really doing it all by themselves. Haven't seen anything announcing they're leaving.

I was told the goal was to get down to three full-time writers between the Sun and PE, but they may have eventually figured out a way to save a fourth position. The people who worked at the PE when it was the only paper in the country to staff three major-league teams (Dodgers and Angels, plus Padre home games) must be in disbelief. Heck, just consider that the PE, as of a few years ago, counted more than 90 high schools in its coverage area. Good luck on football Fridays.