The Shrinking Horde | Page 3 | The Boneyard

The Shrinking Horde

HooperScooper said:
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.
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Very typical of the newspaper industry. Lots of consolidation fighting for last vestiges of print revenue and ability to shed costs. Incredibly profitable in short term but nasty business on personal side. As much as papers have tried, digital media makes Pennie’s on the dollar vs print revenue. Google, Facebook and other digital media take 65% of cut.

Only thing to replace. 10% revenue decline every year is cut costs. Burlington Free Press is/was printed in Providence. The logistics of getting paper printed in RI and delivered to VT by 6:00am means early deadlines which kill any sports coverage. Not just the Horde. The entire industry is one step ahead of buggy whips.
 
karstenkibbe said:
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.
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Her name is Tania.
 
HCCForever said:
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.
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Your Delta Tau Chi name is ….. “ paperboy”
 
uconnyankee said:
Very typical of the newspaper industry. Lots of consolidation fighting for last vestiges of print revenue and ability to shed costs. Incredibly profitable in short term but nasty business on personal side. As much as papers have tried, digital media makes Pennie’s on the dollar vs print revenue. Google, Facebook and other digital media take 65% of cut.

Only thing to replace. 10% revenue decline every year is cut costs. Burlington Free Press is/was printed in Providence. The logistics of getting paper printed in RI and delivered to VT by 6:00am means early deadlines which kill any sports coverage. Not just the Horde. The entire industry is one step ahead of buggy whips.
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There is no way to make money anymore off print. Issue is that people won’t pay for content. It’s a never ending cycle of people wanting more and paying less.
 
JohnFSilver said:
There is no way to make money anymore off print. Issue is that people won’t pay for content. It’s a never ending cycle of people wanting more and paying less.
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Now you know how musicians felt with Napster 23 years ago. They ( writers) are lucky they lasted this long. Music licensing changed, so will writing.
 
JohnFSilver said:
Lol. The Ellis family loved sports .

Our motto.

You read NY Times from the front. You read Playboy from the Center and the JI from the back.

We tried to save money one year, I think Chardis didn’t go to Hawaii. When they won that tourney the Ellis’ were ticked that he wasnt there.

Think about it.
You have to go cover a game, then you take box scores and copy, about 60 a night.

Local sports takes a ton of resources. There is no AP to aggregate the info for you.

We had 5 high school writers and editors. And, then 5 people who edited and were UConn writers plus a columnist .

And in cost, the paper had a circulation of 40 thousand when I got there. And in the early 1990s was in the 50,000 range. Internet did ruin everything.
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So true. I always read JI from the back. And always read it before I started my route.
 
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I interned at the JI sports dept while at UConn then worked there for 1-2 years. Great group of guys who were great at their craft. I thought the JI was neck and neck with the Courant as a sports section. Smith, Chardis and Sherman Cain were all great to work with.

Also Phil Sweetland who covered the whale but left for Nashville to cover the new Predators team when the whale left town. Of course Phil also wanted to go to Nashville to play music. I believe he had a bunch of gigs in the CT area on the side.
 
JohnFSilver said:
There is no way to make money anymore off print. Issue is that people won’t pay for content. It’s a never ending cycle of people wanting more and paying less.
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Print is incredibly profitable. It’s the circulation #’s that make it unsustainable. The only people paying for newspapers grew up on the habit of getting a paper as part of their morning routine. Average age of subscriber is 70+ years old. Probably closer to 75 now
 
uconnyankee said:
Print is incredibly profitable. It’s the circulation #’s that make it unsustainable. The only people paying for newspapers grew up on the habit of getting a paper as part of their morning routine. Average age of subscriber is 70+ years old. Probably closer to 75 now
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????

Print is profitable but no one buys it???

Welp, that means it isn’t profitable.

At the end of the day (or beginning for a morning paper) you need a consumer willing to consume a product. And newspapers aren't it for news consumers.

Otherwise it's not a business.

Newspaper board rooms were filled with newspeople for too long who were too attached to delivering "news" to consumers 12 hours after the entire world already consumed it via mobile devices, TV or other medium.

Print as a news medium is done for ever.

You can do features, interviews or other human interest stories but print for news is dead.
 
Chin Diesel said:
????

Print is profitable but no one buys it???

Welp, that means it isn’t profitable.

At the end of the day (or beginning for a morning paper) you need a consumer willing to consume a product. And newspapers aren't it for news consumers.

Otherwise it's not a business.

Newspaper board rooms were filled with newspeople for too long who were too attached to delivering "news" to consumers 12 hours after the entire world already consumed it via mobile devices, TV or other medium.

Print as a news medium is done for ever.

You can do features, interviews or other human interest stories but print for news is dead print
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Print isn’t profitable anymore. When there was a high paid circulation, combined with advertising dollars print was an absolute minting factory.

Now? News has become a commodity.

Think about The Boneyard.

You see an article that I wrote, you discuss it here. I get a link. No one here bought or paid for the link, no one looked at the advertising.

So. How do I make money? It isn’t the news anymore, it is a Facebook, google and other aggregation services.

The people who make money off the news aren’t the people who reported originally. It is the aggregation shops that take 5 news sources, chop it up, amplify it in social and push, and make money on the volume of the content they are repurposing.

Being an original reporter doesn’t pay anymore.

One of my jobs at Espn was resurfacing our original content and trying to fight with bleacher, barstool etc.

ESPN has so much content, bleacher report would amplify Espn content (and make money off it) better than espn did. They would beat us to market on our own stories.

That’s why Espn has actually gotten away from original reporting outside of tweets
 
JohnFSilver said:
Print isn’t profitable anymore. When there was a high paid circulation, combined with advertising dollars print was an absolute minting factory.
You see an article that I wrote, you discuss it here. I get a link. No one here bought or paid for the link, no one looked at the advertising.
So. How do I make money? It isn’t the news anymore, it is a Facebook, google and other aggregation services.
One of my jobs at Espn was resurfacing our original content and trying to fight with bleacher, barstool etc.
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John I saw and read you fighting the good fight, but pretty much print became the dinosaur because it didn't evolve and really couldn't, as you know to well in a digital world. I saw it coming in the early 2000's when I owned a niche record store and music venue. How many music stores are left because of digital content? I was lucky enough to sell my entire company and venue at the real estate peak.

Funny thing is one of my employees, bounced from the Hartford Advocate where I hooked her up with my sales rep as a writer, then to the JI, then finally ended up with her own company doing digital news and some TV stuff. Here ex boyfriend who worked for me as a manager has been steady with ESPi'N.com for over a decade. While his wife who had the better job in Bristol was let go a few years back. Most important skill in media now seems like be ready for change, because it's coming ....or stay and go broke !
 
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HCCForever said:
The National though short lived in the early 90’s was pretty good as well. It had some local reporting and was reasonable and available in news boxes all over Hartford.
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I loved The National but it cost a buck when other papers only cost a quarter. First paper with regular pro wrestling coverage.
 
Waquoit said:
I loved The National but it cost a buck when other papers only cost a quarter. First paper with regular pro wrestling coverage.
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I remember switching to The National from The Courant when the Courant raised their rates from a quarter to 50 cents. They covered the Dream Season and I wish I still had some of the issues from that season. Good paper but non-sustainable.
 
Blades said:
John I saw and read you fighting the good fight, but pretty much print became the dinosaur because it didn't evolve and really couldn't, as you know to well in a digital world. I saw it coming in the early 2000's when I owned a niche record store and music venue. How many music stores are left because of digital content? I was lucky enough to sell my entire company and venue at the real estate peak.

Funny thing is one of my employees, bounced from the Hartford Advocate where I hooked her up with my sales rep as a writer, then to the JI, then finally ended up with her own company doing digital news and some TV stuff. Here ex boyfriend who worked for me as a manager has been steady with ESPi'N.com for over a decade. While his wife who had the better job in Bristol was let go a few years back. Most important skill in media now seems like be ready for change, because it's coming ....or stay and go broke !
Expand ...
Hah. I got out of print 2015 and media entirely in 2018 (bitter after ESPN exit).

So, in a Corp coms job these And loving it. Just don’t actually like having a boss. And you are 100% right on what happened. I think news is dead as a profitable enterprise.
 
HCCForever said:
The National though short lived in the early 90’s was pretty good as well. It had some local reporting and was reasonable and available in news boxes all over Hartford.
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National is legendary in sports journalism circles for its incredible content, and incredibly awful business execution .
 
JohnFSilver said:
National is legendary in sports journalism circles for its incredible content, and incredibly awful business execution .
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I found The National to be little more than a baseball vehicle. I thought that was a huge editorial mistake.
 
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JohnFSilver said:
Don’t remember it that well, but I could see in 1990 it being baseball heavy.
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It had a daily horse racing page by a guy who knew what he was talking about - Mike (not the jockey) Smith. It was my first exposure to Ray Ratto. I gave him an idea for a column when I started the "P-C N-I-T" at the PCC in 1990.
 
One of the (many) problems that newspapers faced (I have a sportswriter as a friend) is that newspapers offered broad content when many of their consumers wanted more narrow content. The internet allowed customers to view the content they wanted and for the newspapers to measure what the customers were reading. Unfortunately, writers at many newspapers are not paid based on what customers actually read, but based on seniority. That business model doesn't work in the LT.

Personally, I think The Athletic has an opportunity to become the "newspaper" for sports, but I just don't see the management or vision from the NYT. I think The Athletic needs to be a combination of writing, social media, videos, interactive, partnerships,....
 
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UConnJim said:
One of the (many) problems that newspapers faced (I have a sportswriter as a friend) is that newspapers offered broad content when many of their consumers wanted more narrow content. The internet allowed customers to view the content they wanted and for the newspapers to measure what the customers were reading. Unfortunately, writers at many newspapers are not paid based on what customers actually read, but based on seniority. That business model doesn't work in the LT.

Personally, I think The Athletic has an opportunity to become the "newspaper" for sports, but I just don't see the management or vision from the NYT. I think The Athletic needs to be a combination of writing, social media, videos, interactive, partnerships,....
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You're correct on a bunch of it. Traditional role of a sports reporter of reporting what occurred at a sporting event and having it published on paper is dead. Post-game analysis is dead for print media. All of that is done on social media within seconds or minutes of a game ending.

Only thing left for sports journalists is essays and human interest stories outside of competition and games/matches.

I'd love to see an interview for a sports reporter looking for a new career.

HR: "Tell me what you would bring to this company."

Sports Reporter: "Well, I am highly skilled at being paid to attend sporting events for free, watching the event and then telling people who watched the event what happened at the event."
 
Chin Diesel said:
You're correct on a bunch of it. Traditional role of a sports reporter of reporting what occurred at a sporting event and having it published on paper is dead. Post-game analysis is dead for print media. All of that is done on social media within seconds or minutes of a game ending.

Only thing left for sports journalists is essays and human interest stories outside of competition and games/matches.

I'd love to see an interview for a sports reporter looking for a new career.

HR: "Tell me what you would bring to this company."

Sports Reporter: "Well, I am highly skilled at being paid to attend sporting events for free, watching the event and then telling people who watched the event what happened at the event."
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That's rather accurate, except maybe "people who watched the event". One of the interesting twists about cutting the cord for me has been no NESN. So while I never read the game recaps in the paper before, I actually found myself reading one the other day. I haven't seen a Sox game all year except on bar TVs. It was exactly as you described, a nice summary of what happened, when it happened and who did it.

The stuff I read is the more in depth stories about roster construction, trades, signings, the draft, player improvement (all of those for all sports), that's where the coverage is now and where writers can add value and analysis. But I'd say that's exactly what the Athletic is good at. As a Patriots fan, Mike Reiss for ESPN is also fantastic at getting that information.
 
husky429 said:
The Athletic is far better than any local reporting we've ever had (sorry guys!). This is too bad.
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Yeah, that's nonsense.

The Athletic hired a marginally talented person to cover UConn from 30,000' up and then killed their college hoop coverage entirely.
 
Traditional newspapers may be getting picked off, but there's plenty of content out there that has been replacing it with bloggers and podcasters. Reading every article I could in the 90's and early 2000's I don't feel like there's a lack for content.
 
HooperScooper said:
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.
Expand ...
Only caveat being that any such "horde" is shrinking. There are less and less reporters covering any topic and relying on the few reports that are posted via the wire services.
 
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