The Shrinking Horde

[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.

 

[Palatine]

He's a story I've told many times but bears repeating.

When Rip Hamilton played in DC, Michael Jordan joined the squad. And the amount of coverage, buzz and folks covering the Wizards went through the roof. The place was a media circus. When Rip was asked about the jump in attention being paid to the team he responded, "It's like being back at UConn."

 

[asteinindc]

gulp...

 

[husky429]

gulp...

The Athletic is far better than any local reporting we've ever had (sorry guys!). This is too bad.

 

[HuskyHawk]

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.

As a customer, I think the Newspaper business has been really backward thinking in terms of how they monetize content. A subscription for everything isn't going to work for most non-local people. Occasionally I want to read something in the LA Times, the Courant, KC Star or the WSJ. I'm not going to subscribe. So I can either bypass the paywall or not read it.

A smarter model would charge me $1 for that article. Or even 50 cents. It's a digital world. Learn how to monetize your content. If you don't want Disney+ or MAX you can still rent the movies or buy them. Don't put all your eggs in the subscription basket. For newspapers there would be the added benefit of more clicks for advertisers.

 

[husky429]

As a customer, I think the Newspaper business has been really backward thinking in terms of how they monetize content. A subscription for everything isn't going to work for most non-local people. Occasionally I want to read something in the LA Times, the Courant, KC Star or the WSJ. I'm not going to subscribe. So I can either bypass the paywall or not read it.

A smarter model would charge me $1 for that article. Or even 50 cents. It's a digital world. Learn how to monetize your content. If you don't want Disney+ or MAX you can still rent the movies or buy them. Don't put all your eggs in the subscription basket. For newspapers there would be the added benefit of more clicks for advertisers.

I've always wondered if media companies would be successful lumping together subscriptions for streaming with newspapers. Pay your 15$ for just HBO Max, or 20$ a month and get access to xyz local newspapers.

I don't know the ins and outs of the industry, just something that has crossed my mind.

 

[asteinindc]

Outlets have experimented with the charge per article approach. I'm not sure why it hasn't caught on more. But for some reason the economics have not worked. Maybe the issue is the payment portals/structure?

Bundling publications is something that does actually happen right now. Gannet, for example. Even the NYTs. They own 16 regional papers and The Athletic. The model works, i suppose, if you're a behemoth. But I doubt a mid size paper would enter into some sort of cooperative agreement because, frankly, there really isn't any large scale reader base for some subscription service that gets you 5 different types of regional news.

The hard truth is my industry is pretty screwed. Individualized news offerings with subscription fee service can work. But the number of people employed by that model is, by definition, really small. The trends will continue going downward.

 

[CL82]

Why pay journalists when the boneyard works for free?

Wait, you aren't getting paid to post here?

 

[JohnFSilver]

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.

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.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I've always wondered if media companies would be successful lumping together subscriptions for streaming with newspapers. Pay your 15$ for just HBO Max, or 20$ a month and get access to xyz local newspapers.

I don't know the ins and outs of the industry, just something that has crossed my mind.

I don't see it happening. People don't really associate the two. But many local papers are part of a broad consortium. So they could incentivize a subscription by including X number of articles each month from their sister papers elsewhere.

So, if I subscribed to the KC Star, I would get a certain number of articles at the Sacramento Bee, Miami Herald, and the Beaufort Gazette (and other McClatchy papers). Likewise Gannett, Tribune or Digital First Media papers. There's just too much old school thinking in the industry.

 

[auror]

Outlets have experimented with the charge per article approach. I'm not sure why it hasn't caught on more. But for some reason the economics have not worked. Maybe the issue is the payment portals/structure.

Most articles aren't worth $1 to people and it's too much of a hassle to pay $0.12 per article.