Up next: AP

Should be separate from the gripe thread.

 

One fairly easy job cut: Pretty sure Tim Booth isn’t being replaced in Seattle — at least not by a full timer.

 

It's sad that AP has to go begging, hat in hand. At the same time, I remember having discussions with various radio general managers way back in the 1980s about the outrageous monthly cost of having the wire AND how the contract continually rolled over so AP required a massive payment to drop them. It cost my department what I could have paid for two stringers.

I have no idea how much the average newspaper was paying to cover AP's expenses.

 

It ain't cheap, but their sales staff has been more willing to negotiate than they were 5-6 years ago ...

 

I don't follow the AP as closely as I used to. Who is Tim Booth? Has left the company? Without him, how many sports staffers does the AP have in Seattle?

 

The names of potential buyout candidates are beginning to float around and as you can imagine given the tenure required to be a buyout candidate, they are BIG ones.

 

Thanks for letting me know. How many sports staffers does this leave the Seattle bureau with?

 

Anne M. Petersen, who is based in Oregon, has had the byline on Seahawks games, but I don't think you can leave a state with teams in MLB, NFL, NHL and MLS plus three D1 college programs, without a staffer. (Yes, including WSU and Gonzaga, although coverage of those programs has been handled by the Spokane bureau, generally).

 

The great Paul Newberry is out in Atlanta after taking a buyout. Covering his 32nd SEC championship tomorrow, then the Peach Bowl and then it's -30- for him. Ran countless numbers of his stories over my paginating years while we were still subscribed to AP.

All the highlights from Atlanta, Georgia and the South, to the nation and world, including the rise of Michael Phelps as one of the co-beat writers for swimming with Beth Harris (along with winter speed skating) -- he did pretty much everything under the blue moon.

 

Also taking the buyout: Bernie Wilson in San Diego, effective Jan. 3, 2025.