Tom Gage out as Detroit News' Tiger beat writer

Win the Spink award, get taken off the Tigers' beat at your paper.

Supposedly staying in sports.


Updated: Tom Gage Regrets Removal From Tigers Beat After 36 Years; News Responds – Deadline Detroit

 

That is a shame. Experience and knowledge means nothing?

 

Of course they mean something!

They mean that person probably makes more than the bean counters want to pay.

 

“We don’t discuss our specific assignment changes, but over the last several years, we’ve had several beat changes in Sports and other departments, sometimes to adjust to changing resource levels and sometimes to freshen the perspective or approach to our coverage."

Why not? Sounds like your readers -- your customers -- want an explanation.

 

Explanation is pretty simple here. At age 66, we want you to retire and go away, but you won't so we will help nudge you out the door.

 

Yeah, I know. That's why you get lines like "We don't discuss our decisions with our audience."

 

Is there a little Bo Schembechler in the Detroit News' management? [/wewanternie]

 

Which is funny in that the very next breath, they say they want to be involved in conversations with their audience.

 

This is just disgusting. Any News subscriber who cancels can get a beer on me if they catch me.

 

I remember reading The Sporting News in the olden days when the beat writer at the time "introduced" this young guy Gage as the person who would be taking over his spot in the magazine.

 

Yet another example of the No. 1 thing that made me dislike, eventually loathe and ultimately exit the newspaper business: Middle managers (or higher, I s'pose) justifying their existence by moving around the furniture. The worst ones were those who airdropped in, messed with people's lives, then moved on to their next jobs. But even when it's done by long-timers, it's chickenbleep. Layer in some insidious motivation like trying to run someone out to save money or create an opening for a vanity hire, and it's even worse.

Always have felt, and still feel, that the "talent" folks in our business (mostly it's radio-TV that calls them that, but you know who I mean, the reporters, graphic artists, photographers, copy editors, layout people) could do their bosses' jobs better than their bosses could do the "talent's" jobs. But the bosses get to dick with staffers and avoid the layoffs ax longer. Newspapers are frauds, committed to the mediocrity underlying their demise.

 

This is it right here. Humiliating someone into retiring/leaving. I was at one paper that did this to someone in 1997. They pulled him off baseball (his love) and put him on MLS and colleges. I was in the middle of it and I felt terrible. I pulled him aside and told him, "I want you to know that I think the way they're treating you is terrible." The guy is still there. I think he's been there 54 years now.

They're scared of being sued for age discrimination, so they try to make the guy miserable so he'll leave.