Columnist discusses his layoff

Matt James, Fresno Bee sports columnist.

http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/05/04/2376507/gearing-up-for-my-next-gig-fan.html

 

It's one of the best things after leaving. You can just be a fan.

 

That's a really good story about having some perspective - both as a journalist and a person.

Having grown up in Fresno, I've become progressively bummed out at what's happened to that sports section over the years. Their coverage of the Fresno State BB hiring process this time around was particularly weak. Laying off Matt James certainly isn't going to help this at all.

 

Reading this made me very, very sad...

The columnist can be reached for eight more days at mjames@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6217.

I'm so glad I refused to write a final column. There was nothing wrong with what this guy wrote, but I'm just glad I didn't do it.

I remember my SE... "Don't you want to tell the readers why you're leaving?"

I said, "I don't fully understand why I'm leaving, why should I try to explain it to someone else?"

 

There's been a lot of talent going through there the last 20 or so years: Andy Katz, Adrian Wojarnowski, John Carzano and John Branch, to name a few off the top of my head. Now I think its down to two writers on preps, two on Fresno State, one split between JCs and Fresno State and one on outdoors who also covers the Fresno Grizzlies.

 

High quality read, thanks for posting. Always enjoy to read the peripheral and creative angles of sports people over the nuts and bolts game stuff.

 

Very good final column.

It sounds like Fresno Bee sports, although cut down to the bone, is better off than its big brother in Sacramento.

 

Fresno (Katz, Prisbell, Passan, etc...) has produced better talent than Sacramento has over the years.

 

That column is excellent. Understated. Personal, yet entirely appropriate. Well done, sir.

 

What Mizzou said. What I will do. I just know it won't work for me.

Godspeed, Matt, best of luck in the future.

 

I appreciate the kind words here on the board. It's tough sledding out there. You go a couple years without an APSE win and you're expendable, I guess. =)

I personally hate the "hello" and "goodbye" columns. Difficult to say anything interesting or meaningful. After hiding in my room for a couple days, though, I decided I didn't want to let the Bee off with a two-paragraph brief on A-15.

This was layoff round No. 5, or something, and dozens and dozens of hard-working men and women at our shop, from security guards to copy editors to press men to cafeteria workers, had taken the walk before me. We had to cancel our monthly poker game because more than half the guys had been laid off.

I guess I just wanted there to be a face on it somehow. And I think people who follow a column deserve more than to wonder after a couple weeks what happened to the local sports columnist after six years. I'm sure it was a bit self-serving, too. A lot of mail has come in. I wanted the editors and publishers to be reminded that storytelling matters. That trimming to the minimum number of employees necessary to distribute a paper isn't the same as surviving.

Anyway, I'll try to stop in from time to time. Always enjoyed SportsJournalists.com. Off to write a couple books.

Matt James (Fresno Bee sports columnist for 6 more days)

 

Good luck man, sounds like you have it together. Enjoy being a fan again, it's certainly not a four-letter word.