More Cuts at ESPN

Someone asked earlier why anyone would instantly snap up Jayson Stark instead of a younger journalist, and this is the reason. Very few, if any, have better sources across MLB. And when you combine that with his writing ability, he's a very talented journalist that any news organization would like to have.

 

That value of Stark and his contacts would be more important to anyone who isn't ESPN. Stark can bring those anywhere else and be an upgrade from what they currently have.

Those don't have as much value in Bristol where athletes and sources will go to because of its scope anyway.

About 15 years ago, I saw a sports anchor now marking 45 years at one Top 20 station have an underwhelming sportscast. I thought, in my small market, that I put out superior sportscasts.

What an idiot I was.

His value wasn't in his three minutes at 10 pm. It was, when something major happened, he made two phone calls and the just-fired head coach would be at the station in 30 minutes for an exclusive.

Don't feel too bad for any of the laid off anchors today. They can walk into almost any really high paying sports job in a Top 40 market because of the time at ESPN. I feel for a buddy of mine who got let go in an NBA market recently. Now he has to compete with all of these ESPN anchors for the good jobs. That's a tough battle.

If you have been in TV news for a while, you should have a "career emergency kit" ready at all times. You keep your reel updated, your news director contacts fresh every year and you always know the best jobs that are realistic for you to land.

 

The part about SAS was pretty good, which is mainly what I referred to.

 

I knew cran and I would eventually agree on something.

 

There are no high paying sports jobs in Top 40 markets. Local news is cutting the hell out of sports departments, sometimes having anchors do a few local scores and not much more. The top salaries in most major TV markets for a top anchor 20 years ago are probably what a top anchor makes today. And that's news.
If you're lucky you do three minutes of TV at 11 p.m. and have a radio show for three hours in the afternoon and write a column for the local paper.
The SF ABC outlet has Larry Beill doing a news/sports hybrid thing (with authority!) on the weekends. You are probably better off going to a market with a big time college program like Birmingham, Waco or Lexington if you want to be a big deal in a market. Even the local cable sports outlets are shedding their staffs right and left.

 

I get why you don't like the shift. But even as far back as 10-15 years ago, they'd do these things. I don't know how often they do them now because I rarely watch ESPN, but it's not like they're new. They're just a lot more frequent.

Can't help but wonder if that's driven by the internet and social media. Trying to find something that will go viral. How many clicks would tonight's Rangers-Twins highlights get on ESPN's social media? Probably not many. But some of those special features can attract a lot more attention.

 

The "funny" thing is, some of those places stopped doing highlights because ESPN was doing them.

 

You also don't have to watch SportsCenter for those highlights. I watch on my phone or laptop or tablet. I can even pick a volume of highlights that matches what I want.

This news becomes a rorschach test. So many folks see what they want to in ESPN's troubles. Too left wing, not enough highlights, too not funny (trying to be funny was sort of the schtick when the network rose, right?). If it seems like comeuppance for whatever you don't like about ESPN, that's probably too easy of an answer. It was nice to see Whitlock get triggered like the most melting snowflake by Bryan Curtis. That was pretty OK.

 

Just like the glory days of newspapers, if you're old enough to have lived it.
We were so flush with profits, we could send people anywhere on a whim (or a bar bet).
And we did.

 

Yeah, like which younger journalists? Been reading Stark for about 30 years, he's still very good. Also not an assclown on the air, which maybe worked against him.

 

I guess. But when someone stands farther away from the camera than in the history of sports shows and cannot finish two sentences without stopping, laughing, and restarting, it doesn't take a TV expert to say that show sucks.