ESPN LA staff

http://thebiglead.com/?p=32037

Hate to say it, but the Los Angeles newspapers deserve to get the shit kicked out of them by ESPN Los Angeles because of the consistent way that they've crushed the morale of their talented staff members. It looks like ESPN is stealing from all three big papers in LA. Gosh, I wonder why those writers didn't want to stay?

 

Shaggy, I don't know where you're from or who you know or what/who you read, but you have seriously overstated the talent of this group.

 

Let's go somewhere in between the approach of these first two posts. The hires are fine, and in some cases solid, but they are not moving that many needles. ESPN's LA-based Page 2 columnist, Eric Neel, is the site's editor, but I haven't heard any names of the other editors.

 

I'd never click on the Daily News to see what Ramona Shelburne is writing about. Nor JA Adande. Nor a Kamenetzky brother.

Not sure why I am supposed to click on them once they go to espn.comla

 

Nothing mind-blowing about that list. A couple people I'm happy to see get an escape hatch from newspapers while the getting isn't horrible.

Can't be surprised about Adande, obviously. He was already based in SoCal and working for ESPN, so he's a good fit. I don't read the Kamenetzky brothers now, now do I read the Dodgers blogger they hired. Arash is a good dude whose stuff I enjoy at times, and don't bother with at others, depending on the subject matter.

The main former newspaper writers are solid, but again, nothing spectacular or earth-shattering. They didn't really poach anyone considering that Adande long ago left the Times for ESPN, Jackson was famously let go by the Daily News in freaking May of the baseball season, Singleton was a sinking ship before the financial crisis, etc.

It will be interesting to see what else the site has. Is this assemblage that much better than the others? And are these few-Star lineups an indication of the industry's overall view of the stability of espn.com's city sites, or are they more indicative of the wage and security ESPN is offering here? I wonder if ESPN even bothered to try to get huge names, or if it decided to just get some veteran, yet somewhat younger, people to establish the brand without breaking the bank. Not that it really matters, since some will read it just for the brand name.

Don't some of the other city-specific sites have a few freelance columnists? Chicago, for instance.

Good for everyone who utilized this particular escape hatch. Nothing like the hammer of the ESPN name behind you when you're pursuing journalism.

 

I didn't want to get too specific in my initial post. I'll just amend it slightly to say that they are good people, but certainly not stars in this territory.

 

So who are the stars in this area? Most of the names I saw are good reporters, even better writers. I don't see anything wrong with who was hired.

 

I'll be curious to see what happens with the blogger types, and how they're used.

Will Weisman and the Kamenetzky brothers, perhaps, do work for both ESPN L.A. and the L.A. Times, reminiscent of the columnists that also do TV spots?

Because, really, why not, given the multiple platforms and boundary-blurring/crossing that's going on in the business now?

As far as the hires go, there's nothing wrong with most of them, although I'd agree that, for the most part, they're not the real movers/shakers of the area that it seems like ESPN might have or could have gone after.

Perhaps budget considerations played heavily into this, especially as it is just starting up. But it does look to me as if these are mostly ESPN-esque "type" hires that were, with one exception, made more on the basis of media mode and style than for great substance.

And, based on my experience with one of them a few years ago, let's just say that I shake my head in disbelief every time I see the success and apparent good fortune they've enjoyed since then.

 

Somehow, I think Los Angeles newspapers will survive without the world-renowned Kamenetzky brothers. The who?

 

That was my point. The first post on this thread conveyed that this new Web site plucked the cream of the cream of the crop of SoCal journalism and the newspapers will be quaking in their boots.
And Shaggy hasn't been back to defend himself.
The three bloggers have absolutely no impact on L.A. sports ... none.
The three writers are just solid, nothing special. One is a pretty good writer and an OK reporter. One is a good reporter and a bad writer. One is an OK writer and a bad reporter.
The columnist, truthfully, I haven't read a word of his since he left LAT. But he never was a must-read at the LAT, never made an impact, never was compelling.

 

Here's the launch:

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/index

Thoughts? My feeling is that it's certainly nothing special or any sort of must-read.