Without Sullivan and Gleason, what's left to read in the Buffalo News?

This is a good point, and I'd hope if they are flying him all the way to Vegas he's doing a lot more than writing gamers. Most writers sent on road trips do much more than cover the games.

 

Championship events in all the four pro team sports are also conventions for the sport itself (as is the Masters in a way). All sorts of people are available in a more informal setting, there's much gossip and some actual information on the upcoming offseason. Since the offseason is the only season the Sabres might do well in, a Buffalo reporter could pursue any number of non-Final-related stories.

 

Allow me to chime in here and set the record straight.

Michael Gee is correct that you do a ton of conversing at these events and not every conversation turns into a story today either. And one reason we cover it is because of the interest. The television ratings in Buffalo are No. 1 in the US outside of the competing cities -- and that doesn't even count all the people watching in Canada.

But the folks here crabbing about "sending a guy all that way just to do gamers" really need to pay attention. That's NEVER what we do. I do game columns, sure. I'm here after all. But last year in Nashville and Pittsburgh, for instance, I did a bevy of Sabres-related stories. Botterill/Housley/Pete Weber/a family of Eichel fans. And then, lo and behold, Botterill is on the ice after the Penguins win Game 6 and we get an exclusive only by being there.

Same thing this year. We don't get any of these stories if I'm not here:
---Ovechkin on his childhood Sabres sweater -- The story behind young Ovechkin's Sabres jacket
---Karlsson on Dahlin -- Vegas' William Karlsson on Rasmus Dahlin: 'He's got some nasty moves'
---Bettman on Kim Pegula -- Stanley Cup notebook: Bettman lauds Kim Pegula's increased role
---The Game 1 column that brought our readers to Vegas -- Mike Harrington: As Game 1 proved, Hockey Night in Vegas is quite a show
---An A-1 takeout: In Las Vegas, converted Buffalo fans swept up in Cup hysteria -- In Las Vegas, converted fans from Buffalo swept up in Stanley Cup hysteria
---The Game 2 column that reminded folks of Brooks Orpik's Buffalo years -- Mike Harrington: Orpik an unlikely offensive hero as Caps even series
--Currently working today's column on Dahlin's visit to the Cup final and a column on Vegas scouting director Scott Luce.

Our readers get NONE of these stories if I'm not here doing the reporting and, in fact, being the one asking the questions. Props to management for recognizing that.

If you're going to generalize about something, I'm just not gonna let it go if you're 100 percent wrong. Wouldn't be too hard to go on our web site and check out our stories at the BN Hockey page: Sabres – The Buffalo News

Thanks for the rant time.

MH

 

Fair enough. Do you know if you will be able to continue to travel to these events or are budgets being cut?

 

Zero indication anything like that is in the works. Each item is simply evaluated on its merits and that's how decisions are made.

 

Here is our latest job listing, this one for a Trending Sports Enterprise Writer.

Trending Sports Enterprise Writer -- Buffalo News

We are hiring for three positions.

 

Much love, Mike. Good work from Vegas/DC, and I'm sure I'll still see you guys around. But with Tim leaving too, I don't know if you, Mark, Amy and Jay are enough of a draw for me to keep my subscription.

 

Honest question (sorry if I missed it), are you in the Buffalo area?

 

Not actually in the city, but in their TV market. And a BN digital subscriber, only because their circulation department discontinued 7-day print delivery in our region several years ago. (Still have the delivery tube.) We'll still go buy the Sunday paper, though.

Or at least we used to.

 

A report on the sports department exodus.

What really happened: The Buffalo News loses half their sports staff in the span of a month

It's a little weird. Those on the way out seem to have some odd objections to change mixed in with some legitimate concerns about cozying up to the Pegulas.

Also, despite the emphasis on web and enterprise, I hate the Buffalo News web site. It's overly aggressive against ad blockers - yet those are needed because when you whitelist, the ads are really, really obnoxious. I clicked on it today and a drop down ad for the Buffalo Bisons took up the entire front page. I couldn't even tell which web site I was on.

 

That's a good story. Unfortunately the News has stuck almost all of its Bills' stories behind the Blitz paywall. So I just skip them. And once my 10 free stories for the week are done, it's wait for the next 10.