The Shrinking Horde

[Giscombe12]

When Pete Abraham was at The Bulletin covering the team, he was called into service to practice during Calhoun’s first year on more than one occasion.

 

[Waquoit]

When Pete Abraham was at The Bulletin covering the team, he was called into service to practice during Calhoun’s first year on more than one occasion.

Seriously? I guess I didn't see Pete as a jock.

 

[Giscombe12]

Seriously? I guess I didn't see Pete as a jock.

That’s according to Pete! He was much younger.

 

[gtcam]

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.

It wont make a comeback until the reporting resembles even a sense of being unbiased. Yeah - like that is going to happen with the current training ground - colleges and universities.
The JI had one of the best Sports Editors since Bill Lee of the Courant in the 50s/60s - that being Randy Smith who was writing in the 70s-early 2000s who Phil Chardis said taught him everything he knows.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

It wont make a comeback until the reporting resembles even a sense of being unbiased. Yeah - like that is going to happen with the current training ground - colleges and universities.
The JI had one of the best Sports Editors since Bill Lee of the Courant in the 50s/60s - that being Randy Smith who was writing in the 70s-early 2000s who Phil Chardis said taught him everything he knows.

The funny thing is that people like you do not want perspectives you disagree with to exist. People like me want to hear all the perspectives. If you took Modern European History at UConn you would have learned about the political movements that felt the same way you do.

 

[HuskyHawk]

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

Sad. Growing up in Manchester a lot of us had Paper Routes delivering the JI. The Courant too, but that was an early morning grind, while you could do the JI after school.

 

[ucp990411]

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.

Peter Abraham now the Red Sox beat reporter for the Boston Globe was the UConn beat reporter in the 1980’s for the Norwich Bulletin. . He was great. The Bulletin was my main source for Husky info back then.

 

[ucp990411]

Sad. Growing up in Manchester a lot of us had Paper Routes delivering the JI. The Courant too, but that was an early morning grind, while you could do the JI after school.

I delivered the Hartford Times for about 8 years

 

[Fishy]

The JI comes in the mail now.

In his welcome message, Neil Ostrout said that he’d done this that and the other thing at the paper and if need be, he’d grab his bike for deliveries.

Kinda jarring as it ran next to the article where they basically fired all the delivery people.

Guess he did not get that memo.

 

[Waquoit]

In his welcome message, Neil Ostrout said that he’d done this that and the other thing at the paper and if need be, he’d grab his bike for deliveries.

Kinda jarring as it ran next to the article where they basically fired all the delivery people.

Guess he did not get that memo.

My JI delivery person was awesome. This sucks for both of us. I just bought a card.

 

[Giscombe12]

Seriously? I guess I didn't see Pete as a jock.

Just went back & listened to my interview with him. '86-'87, when they were down to about 8 healthy players, he specifically remembers being part of the back line of a 2-3 zone with Dave Leitao & Howie Dickenman while the team ran plays against it.

I suppose your point still stands.

 

[nomar]

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

I’m guessing everybody born in the 20th century had figured that!

 

[Cheddie]

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.

The Courant is withering on a drying vine. Beyond its shrinking newsroom, its delivery switched from the Day back to its own service in SE CT. I didn't receive a paper for two months after the transition and I canceled.. Hearst can leverage its coverage over multiple state papers from Stamford to Torrington to Vernon, Middletown, etc. allowing it to budget more for reporters. No accident that Anthony, Jacobs and Doyle jumped the Courant ship.

 

[JohnFSilver]

It wont make a comeback until the reporting resembles even a sense of being unbiased. Yeah - like that is going to happen with the current training ground - colleges and universities.
The JI had one of the best Sports Editors since Bill Lee of the Courant in the 50s/60s - that being Randy Smith who was writing in the 70s-early 2000s who Phil Chardis said taught him everything he knows.

Awe man. Miss Randy. What a great writer. Talent was world class.

I can tell stories for days, but I would say when I was at the JI, our sports pages for the first decade I was there were incredible.

We had 10 guys back then.

On UConn. Smith, Chardis, Adamec and then I got bumped up to football.

high school coverage was stellar. The paper just couldn’t survive modern media.

 

[dennismenace]

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

Truthfully, writers only get what primarily coaches give them. It's a hard job when you are dependent on the cooperation of others to get a story. The Boneyard has the collective insight and diverse views to see things that writers can't imagine. We know they follow the BY. And the BY is so much more when it comes to comedy and entertainment. I can skip the Courant knowing that if I stay connected to the BY I'll get the stories and much, much more.

 

[ThetaZoo]

Sad. Growing up in Manchester a lot of us had Paper Routes delivering the JI. The Courant too, but that was an early morning grind, while you could do the JI after school.

My parents told me I should quit my Courant route in So. Manchester around 1960-61 because I couldn't stay awake in school. Plus the fact that the Sunday papers were 2 inches thick and I couldn't fit 100 papers or so in my saddle baskets.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Awe man. Miss Randy. What a great writer. Talent was world class.

I can tell stories for days, but I would say when I was at the JI, our sports pages for the first decade I was there were incredible.

We had 10 guys back then.

On UConn. Smith, Chardis, Adamec and then I got bumped up to football.

high school coverage was stellar. The paper just couldn’t survive modern media.

Yes, the JI had it going real good with their sports section for a while.

But holy lolz, it's unfathomable anyone would every pitch a business plan where a regional newspaper which doesn't even have a Sunday edition would keep 10 reporters/columnists on the payroll just for sports.

 

[husky429]

It wont make a comeback until the reporting resembles even a sense of being unbiased. Yeah - like that is going to happen with the current training ground - colleges and universities.

Every time I take you off ignore, it takes about 3 days before I hear this absolute blithering nonsense and consider doing it again.

 

[SoFla Steve]

I delivered the Hartford Times on Sundays until it was discontinued. I had the New Britain Herald routes during the week.

 

[Man's Field]

Why pay journalists when the boneyard works for free?

 

[Rico444]

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.

The problem is, there will always be the incentive to cut costs. I subscribed to the Athletic, and was fine paying to get quality journalism for my favorite teams with no ads. Now they have ads, and they've already cut the UConn beat writer. I can't imagine those will be the final cost-cutting moves they will make.

 

[Rico444]

Every time I take you off ignore, it takes about 3 days before I hear this absolute blithering nonsense and consider doing it again.

I must be blocked by whoever this is because I used to see a 'See ignored content' message at the bottom of the screen, but now I don't. It's obvious you and a few others are quoting a post but I only see your message.

 

[Waquoit]

Awe man. Miss Randy. What a great writer. Talent was world class.

I can tell stories for days, but I would say when I was at the JI, our sports pages for the first decade I was there were incredible.

We had 10 guys back then.

On UConn. Smith, Chardis, Adamec and then I got bumped up to football.

high school coverage was stellar. The paper just couldn’t survive modern media

He really was. His opinion columns were as good as anyone was writing in Boston and New York at the time. I was thinking of him when I was in South Bend watching UConn beat Notre Dame in football. He would have loved that.

 

[husky429]

I must be blocked by whoever this is because I used to see a 'See ignored content' message at the bottom of the screen, but now I don't. It's obvious you and a few others are quoting a post but I only see your message.

It's GTCam claiming the liberal education at college is the downfall of journalism like in the good old days.

 

[asteinindc]

As someone in the business, I will say, it is indeed distressing. A few points to add from my perspective.

1. The actual information around the hoops team hasn't changed all that much. There are other sources for it online. We are not lacking in content or things to read about. and it's not just written copy. Video copy is everywhere. Podcasts are readily available. Weird individual twitter personalities obsessed with UCONN hoops fill our streams. It's a gold mine compared to ten years ago.
2. the absence is in historic knowledge, the capacity to string together some coherent sentences and — most importantly — reliable reporting. Twitter sleuths really can't be trusted as much as beat reporters.
3. We (myself included) can be part of the problem. Lots of sharing of free links to articles with pay walls here! I click them too though i also make it a point of subscribing to a few local outlets even though I'm no longer in CT
4. We could also be part of the solution. There are new models of journalism that have been propped up in certain places: basically non profits where subscription revenue pays the bills, complemented by some ad revenues if they come in. You could imagine a world in which Boneyarders paid a nominal fee for a beat reporter of their own (kidding, that would never happen). More likely: i can imagine a UCONN kid or young reporter out of school starting a substack solely focused on UCONN hoops. If you could convince 600 people to pay $125 a year for that ($10 and change per month), that's $75,000. Not a bad salary for someone right out of college.