Layoffs in Indianapolis

Oh, I got the joke. Of course that doesn't mean there isn't an element of truth there.

 

The Denver game was Chappell's last for the Star, but he's not done covering the Colts. The local ABC affiliate has hired him, a la the local NBC affiliate hiring Kravitz.

http://www.theindychannel.com/sports/colts/award-winning-sportswriter-mike-chappell-joins-rtv6

Interesting that while the newspaper is willing to say goodbye to big names (at least locally), the TV stations for the moment are stepping up in hiring them. The ABC affiliate also recently hired Michael Grady, a local sports radio talker who also is the PA announcer at Pacers games. Is TV doing that where you live?

 

One of the local stations where I live has been doing it on the news side for a while - hiring some of the best political and investigative word people out of the newspapers. That station's website has become my go to local news source over papers that now have soft pay walls. It has a robust local sports website and owns the major sports talk station, so those folks are all integrated into its programming, but so far it has not snagged any of the must-read writers from the papers.

 

I haven't seen that too much yet in Chicago, although TV news -- supposedly also not the money-maker it used to be -- keeps expanding. WGN, which until a few years ago only had news in the morning and at 9 p.m., is expanding its 5-6 newscast to 4-6. I wonder if it's cheaper to expand your newscast than to buy and promote another hour of syndicated programming that may flop in a year's time.

 

I'm glad Chappell found a job quickly, but those jobs for the local TV station can be shaky.

 

Relevant to this: http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/267509/seeking-to-bolster-websites-tv-stations-hire-away-newspaper-journalists/

It's worked well for the likes of Eric Crawford in Louisville.

 

Thanks for sharing.

And, sure, TV jobs can be dicey. But at this moment, certainly in a Gannett city (or is that Gannet?), they're more stable than newspapers.

(Well, except for anyone working at WISH-TV in Indianapolis, which lost its CBS affiliation recently.)

 

Per Kravitz's twitter, he has been downsized out of his gig with the TV station.

 

Word is, several others from the station have been laid off, too. Kravitz was by far the most visible

The issue with TV news is that it is a consultant-driven business with a lot of herd-following. The fad four years ago was hiring good journalists away from newspapers to bolster web traffic by providing high-quality print content and compete head-to-head with the newspapers. Now, it's not generating the revenue (or another fad has replaced it). Could also be, with the consultants moving onto the next shiny object, TV stations are viewing their websites like newspapers did in the early days - as an annoying add-on that's not the prime product and thus aren't really worth putting much time and effort into. The quality of writing on TV station sites - other than what the newspaper alumni like Kravitz provide - is often very ghastly. Much of it would be sent back for rewrite in the high school freshman journalism class I teach.

That said, I feel for Bob. Many of us have been there - I bailed out on the biz before it happened to me - but he's a good guy whom I've enjoyed getting to know in recent years. He did a ton for WTHR, including his usual columnist gig and on-air appearances. WTHR also aired the local minor league hockey team's games on a digital subchannel for a year and he did color commentary for them when his schedule allowed. He broke the "deflategate" story while working for the TV station, which likely generated a ton of traffic and *never* would've happened without a newspaper journalist working for them.

 

How fast will Kravitz get picked up by The Athletic?

 

Does the Athletic have an Indianapolis edition?

 

That might be irrelevant when considering Kravitz and the massive following and name recognition he has.