The Shrinking Horde

[HooperScooper]

Hearst Media, which owns the New Haven Register and the Connecticut Post, just purchased the Journal Inquirer of Manchester and as of this week all the UConn men's basketball articles in the JI are the same ones that are in the Register and Post. No more dedicated UConn beat writer from the JI.

Remember 20-30 years ago when there were at least 10 beat writers covering the UConn men's basketball team and they were called The Horde? No more. The only Connecticut newspapers that I'm aware of that now have at least 1 dedicated UConn beat writer are the Hartford Courant, New Haven Register (really Hearst Media), New London Day and the Waterbury Republican-American. I think The Athletic has a beat writer covering the team. Does that reporter specifically cover the team and travel to away games?

The last few seasons only the Courant and Register have sent their beat writers to far away road games like DePaul, Marquette, Creighton, etc. A cost cutting move for sure.

It is a sign of the times as newspapers have shrunk in importance. Game articles are pretty much the same but the more beat writers there were the more extra interesting articles there were outside of the game articles. I miss that. The Horde is no more.

 

[Waquoit]

The JI comes in the mail now.

 

[HooperScooper]

The JI comes in the mail now.

Yeah I saw that. Hearst decided it wasn't worth having delivery people. Every newspaper will be online subscription soon anyway.

 

[TheHorde]

Hearst Media, which owns the New Haven Register and the Connecticut Post, just purchased the Journal Inquirer of Manchester and as of this week all the UConn men's basketball articles in the JI are the same ones that are in the Register and Post. No more dedicated UConn beat writer from the JI.

Remember 20-30 years ago when there were at least 10 beat writers covering the UConn men's basketball team and they were called The Horde? No more. The only Connecticut newspapers that I'm aware of that now have at least 1 dedicated UConn beat writer are the Hartford Courant, New Haven Register (really Hearst Media), New London Day and the Waterbury Republican-American. I think The Athletic has a beat writer covering the team. Does that reporter specifically cover the team and travel to away games?

The last few seasons only the Courant and Register have sent their beat writers to far away road games like DePaul, Marquette, Creighton, etc. A cost cutting move for sure.

It is a sign of the times as newspapers have shrunk in importance. Game articles are pretty much the same but the more beat writers there were the more extra interesting articles there were outside of the game articles. I miss that. The Horde is no more.

That’s where my BY name came from when Calhoun used to refer to the CT media that way.

 

[Candyman]

We got Dave Borges of the Insider for Hearst, Joe Arruda and Dom Amore of the Courant, Gavin Keefe for the Day in New London. I don't know of other news papers. Ed Daigneault used to cover for the Republican-American in Waterbury but "left" to start a brewery then left that than was covering the team as a freelance writer last season. William Paxon covers the team for Storrs Central.

Not sure who else travels with the team tho.

 

[Waquoit]

That’s where my BY name came from when Calhoun used to refer to the CT media that way.

It was The Horde when Calhoun was coaching in East Lyme.

 

[Chin Diesel]

RIP JI as an independent news source.

As a middle schooler and freshman/soph in HS delivering the Courant in the morning and JI in the afternoon was my income. Supplement that with some snow shoveling in the winter and cutting grass in the summer and I always had enough cash for the game room and go kart track at Golfland.

 

[Jbirdp5]

Sad to see….. it was always nice to get multiple takes on the team from the different writers

 

[karstenkibbe]

Hearst has kind of killed the horde. Stamford Advocate, Danbury News-Times and Norwalk Hour all used to have dedicated UConn best writers at some point. All are now under the Hearst umbrella.

 

[king conn]

They all write off of the same Hurley press conferences anyway. Its like they all copy the same script

Back in the day there used to be competition, where they would put in the effort to pull someone aside and have a story nobody else had. Or had opinion articles. Now they are either afraid to or not smart enough to. I'm sure with the rate of pay newspapers have today the caliber of reporter is affected

More or less they've thrown in the towel.

 

[auror]

We got Dave Borges of the Insider for Hearst, Joe Arruda and Dom Amore of the Courant, Gavin Keefe for the Day in New London. I don't know of other news papers. Ed Daigneault used to cover for the Republican-American in Waterbury but "left" to start a brewery then left that than was covering the team as a freelance writer last season. William Paxon covers the team for Storrs Central.

Not sure who else travels with the team tho.

Evan Rodrigues last year helped cover for the Courant as well. Shreyas was there the year before, so I think there was a coverage split situation. I think Evan used to normally do UConn football.

 

[Drew]

I’m pretty sure The Athletic doesn’t have a dedicated UConn reporter anymore. To be honest I was shocked when I saw she wasn’t going to cover football or any additional sports besides MBB and WBB for them on the site- not sure how it was remotely justified to pay someone $ to only cover a sport for one dedicated team 4 months a year

 

[husky99]

I posted the news on this board for a few years and there would be 7 to 10 different news sources almost daily written by 6 to 8 different reporters... those days are over

 

[metsfan2323]

The internet killed the horde but created the mob known as the boneyard.

 

[alexd]

In the 90's UConn used to boast that we had the largest local media entourage of any MBB team in the country.

 

[willie99]

Journalism is dead anyhow, more seats for the rest of us

Just come to the Boneyard for news and updates

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I think journalism will make something of a comeback as people get more and more comfortable with paying for content. Streaming has helped this along.

 

[HooperScooper]

Back in the day there used to be competition, where they would put in the effort to pull someone aside and have a story nobody else had.

They still do that. Just not as much.

 

[HooperScooper]

What ever happened to the Norwich Bulletin? They used to have a beat reporter also. I just went on their site and I can't see any UConn articles. It looks like it's now owned by Gannett since they have a link to the USA Today sports page.

 

[husky99]

What ever happened to the Norwich Bulletin? They used to have a beat reporter also. I just went on their site and I can't see any UConn articles. It looks like it's now owned by Gannett since they have a link to the USA Today sports page.

@HooperScooper
Check your pm

 

[HooperScooper]

@HooperScooper
Check your pm

Thanks. I guess the Norwich Bulletin hasn't had a beat writer in a long time.

 

[HCCForever]

RIP JI as an independent news source.

As a middle schooler and freshman/soph in HS delivering the Courant in the morning and JI in the afternoon was my income. Supplement that with some snow shoveling in the winter and cutting grass in the summer and I always had enough cash for the game room and go kart track at Golfland.

I did something similar but my routes were the Courant and Hartford Times. Half of the routes overlapped which made collecting easier but reduced my tips. I stopped doing this a few months after getting a grocery store job. It served its purpose for money and most of my friends did it as well.

I also had a car route as an adult for the Courant. It wasn't bad making $1100 a month but a good portion of that went towards gas and auto maintenance and I did claim them as business deductions. At one time that route was over 400 subscribers on Sundays but the paper was so thin during the week that I only had about 260 subscribers early in the week.

The JI and its sports page were a good alternative to the Courant.

 

[husky99]

Thanks. I guess the Norwich Bulletin hasn't had a beat writer in a long time.

Ithink Paxton, William started in Norwich or it might have been geefe

 

[HooperScooper]

Ithink Paxton, William started in Norwich or it might have been geefe

Wasn't he at the Connecticut Post?

 

[husky99]

Wasn't he at the Connecticut Pos

but wrote a few articles

Absolutely. But i think he was freelance with a few papers at the start. Many do until they sign