Sporting News on life support

[HanSenSE]

Never been one to devour box scores, but would read all the notebooks on each team every week, which were usually written by a local beat writer. Would still buy the yearbooks, but the quality went downhill when TSN sold it off.

 

[Drip]

Drip is right about the SN demise being about more than one editor. There's plenty of blame to go around upper management over the last two years. The fact that absentee publishers who've been in NY and not NC contributed greatly to unchecked incompetence, ill-advised firings and bad hires. No one's really watching the farm. There's still talent remaining, but so many of the good writers/editors have been let go and in their places (if their places were filled) have been recent college grads and old/new unqualified friends of the EIC who are willing to work long hours for little pay. When I got out, morale was terrible and you could see that things were heading south fast.

I believe the ship can still be saved. It's not a lost cause.

 

[Smasher_Sloan]

I've bought one issue of TSN in my lifetime about 20 years ago, and that was only because my favorite team was on the cover. The magazine seemed to only be focused on baseball for the 1970s and '80s, to which I preferred Sports Illustrated because it was more well rounded.

Don't see how anyone could consider TSN and SI and either/or back then. The approaches were completely different. They complemented each other.

 

[imjustagirl]

NYknight said what I was going to say with the benefit (bad word choice) of first-person experience.

Garry Howard didn't kill SN. But he sure as **** wasn't the guy to hire if you wanted fresh ideas or hard work or to turn things around.

 

[Huggy]

They even killed "Caught on the Fly" a few years ago, didn't they?

Shaddup!

 

[Mizzougrad96]

NYknight said what I was going to say with the benefit (bad word choice) of first-person experience.

Garry Howard didn't kill SN. But he sure as **** wasn't the guy to hire if you wanted fresh ideas or hard work or to turn things around.

It was like hiring Dr. Nick (Hi Everybody!) to help someone who was already in a coma.

 

[Smasher_Sloan]

TSN, perhaps more than anything else, was mortally wounded by the Internet. One of their selling points was that if you were an avid Phillies living in Idaho, they would provide you with Phillies information every week.

When the Internet came along, that Phillies fan in Idaho could daily read the local and suburban Philly papers, follow the team's website, participate in discussion boards and even listen to local talk shows as well as watch or listen to the game broadcasts.

Made that Thursday trip to the mailbox for TSN a lot less important.

 

[JackS]

I'd hope they bring back the yearbooks division. Those were quite popular. I missed the college basketball preview book this year (although Lindy and Athlon did a great job with theirs), and I could never fathom why SN would take something away that people liked.

I hope everything works out for SN.

Agree on missing the college hoop yearbook, although I also agree Lindy's was a good replacement this year.

It's just weird to have 25+ straight issues of the TSN college hoop yearbook on my shelf and now one Lindy's.

Bring back the yearbooks!

 

[Fran Curci]

"Garry Howard didn't kill SN. But he sure as **** wasn't the guy to hire if you wanted fresh ideas or hard work or to turn things around."

This is certainly true. And then he hired a bunch of cronies. Nothing wrong with that, if your cronies are talented.

 

[NYknight]

He is the guy you want if you're looking for nothing more than name-dropping, high fives, loud clapping and sports trivia questions at staff meetings. All of this leads to the state of SN today.

 

[SportsGuyBCK]

He is the guy you want if you're looking for nothing more than name-dropping, high fives, loud clapping and sports trivia questions at staff meetings. All of this leads to the state of SN today.

Too bad ... what's funny is that SN's owners had at least three people already working for them in other publications who were far better qualified to take Sporting News to the next level (two of them were working in the NASCAR division before it got shredded -- one got shown the door, the other I believe is still there running the magazine -- and the third is an AME for Sports Business Journal) ...

 

[Drip]

"Garry Howard didn't kill SN. But he sure as **** wasn't the guy to hire if you wanted fresh ideas or hard work or to turn things around."

This is certainly true. And then he hired a bunch of cronies. Nothing wrong with that, if your cronies are talented.

He is the guy you want if you're looking for nothing more than name-dropping, high fives, loud clapping and sports trivia questions at staff meetings. All of this leads to the state of SN today.

Garry is a rah-rah type of editor.

 

[imjustagirl]

Can you put "editor" in quotes please?

 

[SportsGuyBCK]

Can you put "editor" in quotes please?

And in blue font ... :)

 

[Doc Holliday]

I've bought one issue of TSN in my lifetime about 20 years ago, and that was only because my favorite team was on the cover. The magazine seemed to only be focused on baseball for the 1970s and '80s, to which I preferred Sports Illustrated because it was more well rounded.

Don't see how anyone could consider TSN and SI and either/or back then. The approaches were completely different. They complemented each other.

You're exactly right. That's why I never preferred TSN. They were too focussed on baseball. By the time they noticed the other sports, they were so far behind it didn't matter. But, yes, they did actually compliment each other at one time.

 

[LanceyHoward]

I've bought one issue of TSN in my lifetime about 20 years ago, and that was only because my favorite team was on the cover. The magazine seemed to only be focused on baseball for the 1970s and '80s, to which I preferred Sports Illustrated because it was more well rounded.

Don't see how anyone could consider TSN and SI and either/or back then. The approaches were completely different. They complemented each other.

I think that TSN in the 70's and 80's suffered from running a lot of boring stories. Every baseball team got a weekly story, even in the off season. So there would be lots of short features on a back-uuo catcher and

I've bought one issue of TSN in my lifetime about 20 years ago, and that was only because my favorite team was on the cover. The magazine seemed to only be focused on baseball for the 1970s and '80s, to which I preferred Sports Illustrated because it was more well rounded.

Don't see how anyone could consider TSN and SI and either/or back then. The approaches were completely different. They complemented each other.

You're exactly right. That's why I never preferred TSN. They were too focussed on baseball. By the time they noticed the other sports, they were so far behind it didn't matter. But, yes, they did actually compliment each other at one time.

ruAnd football received a lot less space, even in season.

You're exactly right. That's why I never preferred TSN. They were too focussed on baseball. By the time they noticed the other sports, they were so far behind it didn't matter. But, yes, they did actually compliment each other at one time.

TSN suffered from a lot of boring stories. They would run a short feature for every MLB team weekly. So they would have a feature about a back-up catcher on the rangers and nothing on the Cowboys game. I also think the fact they stuck to newsprint rather than moving to a magazine presentation never really allowed them to develop their advertising.

 

[Drip]

Can you put "editor" in quotes please?

Can you put "editor" in quotes please?

And in blue font ... :)

Ok, Garry may not be the most popular editor around but again, he's not the sole reason for the problems.

 

[Twoback]

SN as a weekly was shut down a while back before they went to a biweekly schedule and then it shut down the magazine completely. Now, the brand as a whole is shutting down? My apologized and condolences go out to everyone at SN.

One jackhole comes on here and claims the deal is on life support with no legitimate info to back him/herself and you lemmings all buy the whole deal? No wonder the media business is going to hell.

 

[Riptide]

SN as a weekly was shut down a while back before they went to a biweekly schedule and then it shut down the magazine completely. Now, the brand as a whole is shutting down? My apologized and condolences go out to everyone at SN.

One jackhole comes on here and claims the deal is on life support with no legitimate info to back him/herself and you lemmings all buy the whole deal? No wonder the media business is going to hell.

Lemmings? I called a friend at TSN. He says the print magazine is killed.

 

[Drip]

SN as a weekly was shut down a while back before they went to a biweekly schedule and then it shut down the magazine completely. Now, the brand as a whole is shutting down? My apologized and condolences go out to everyone at SN.

One jackhole comes on here and claims the deal is on life support with no legitimate info to back him/herself and you lemmings all buy the whole deal? No wonder the media business is going to hell.

Lemmings? I called a friend at TSN. He says the print magazine is killed.

I have to agree with Rip on this one.