Replacing Kravitz at the Indianapolis Star is...

Just when I was about to completely give up on The Star's sports section.

 

Their best player is Doyle, No. 15. He uh ... averages about 20 points a game.

Buddy, you gotta stick right with him.

 

Yeah, it went from no reason whatsover to read it to I won't miss it.

Usually a sign of a good columnist hire.

 

Paywall, I believe, though I'm not sure if you reach it just from reading sports columns 20 times a month.

 

With Chappell and Kravitz gone, the only reason for me to go there will be Doyel.

 

Really? Reilly was making seven figures at ESPN. Simmons is making THREE MILLION.
But it's only newspapers.

 

ESPN doesn't pay either of them primarily for their writing. ESPN.com has pushed back big-brand columnists in favor of specialization quite heavily in the last decade.

 

Newspaper columnists have long made more money moonlighting for ESPN than they made at their primary employer.

 

Good move for Doyel. Basketball, he's damn good at that -- and he'll get plenty of it in Indy, on top of other stuff.

Beyond that -- you know USA Today's gonna roll with his shit at Final Four, NBA Finals, etc. There will be money for him.

However many years ago it was that he covered hoops for CBS, that was terrific stuff. The columnist role was too much of a "heroes and villains" space for me. But locality has a way of smoothing some of that out.

 

Who will pay for him to cover those events, Alma?

 

My expectations are high for Keefer on the Colts beat. He did a damn good job in his one year covering Butler. Until today, he was one of only two writers left there whose work interests me anymore - the other being Curt Cavin. I've taken to getting my Pacers, most of my Colts, Purdue and racing news elsewhere. Haven't found a solid alternative for Butler.

The paywall is one of those stupid soft paywalls that's ridiculously easy to circumvent. If they went with a hard paywall, I'd consider paying for The Star even though I don't live there anymore. But the soft paywall makes it to easy not to.

EDIT: I should add that I think Neddenriep is talented on preps, I just don't pay any attention to Indy preps anymore. Same for IU, I have no idea who is covering the Hoosiers at this point.

 

Who covers the Pacers better?