Big Doings in Dallas

The DMN dropped their NHL beat during the lockout, and I bet they model their new MLB and NBA coverage on how they've handled hocke.

The beat writer covered the Stars almost exclusively with the exception of a weekly column on the NHL. League-wide NHL stories were pulled off the wire, and home games were staffed with an extra person who wrote notes. They had a writer in California for most of the year (Gerry Fraley), so they used him to cover the California games. The regular beat writer traveled to the others.

They currently have two writers on the Rangers, though only one travels with the team. Cowboys get three, but one works almost exclusively for the subscription CowboysPlus.com. Mavericks generally have a beat writer and a national NBA guy. I'd be most curious to see what happens there.

But people who follow Dallas sports teams closely, especially hockey, generally prefer the FWST coverage from my expereince.

 

No matter how you slice it, these are serious cuts.

But the way it reads, the DMN is scaling back to the coverage most major metros offer. With the exception of the Chicago papers, most of the major metros in my midwestern neck of the woods have similar philosophies.

Not saying that justifies a damn thing, anytime information is cut from a section it's a bad thing, and anytime employees are lost it's far worse.

 

And it means the section as a whole will have to work much harder for its APSE awards. As it stands now, SportsDay just became another sports section in another major metro (unless they can package these cuts and still make SportsDay read like a good section).

Can someone familiar with the situation (LoneStar, maybe you'd know this) put on the board how FWST handles things? Who they assign to beats and if they have national beat writers? Right about now, I gotta believe McClatchy is licking its chops to swoop in.

 

I assume news will be slammed just as hard as sports. What, pray tell, will be the Morning News' new marketing slogan. "Everything is big in Texas-Except Us"?

 

Gotta be a lotta unhappy piss ants deep in the hearta. :'(

 

This piss ant ain't. ;D

EDIT:

Gerry Fraley is in California for family reasons, which is why he's not mentioned among the columists. But he's 10x the columnist the 3 other ones are. Because he's not afraid to rip when it's deserved.

And ....

Richard Durrett (formerly the 2nd Stars writer) is now the 2nd Rangers writer. So not a big change.

And I shall reiterate my DMN positioning statement: It's the business model I hate, not the individuals working for it.

 

I have to wonder:

If I'm in Fort Worth, I don't know if I'm 'licking my chops' or not. I think I might be worried myself.

The reason Fort Worth works so hard for its size is to be competitive with the DMN.

If the Morning News cuts back like this, then they won't have to work as hard. And that might mean fewer resources committed to making sure Fort Worth can play with the big kid.

 

SF, I'm confused. Who's 'they?'

There's no competition between the two other than for reputation. The only real "competition," in terms of circulation, is maybe in the Mid-Cities. The DMN owns everything east of the Dallas-Tarrant county line, and the S-T everything west. (Including Arlington.) The one place the S-T is missing the boat is Collin County.

 

Yeah, I understand ... but 20 years ago in this business, the reputation thing mattered.

These days, being a "prestigious" paper doesn't seem to matter much any more when set against the bottom line. I always got the impression Fort Worth did what it did so it wouldn't be considered the weak little sister.

Now, they might not have to do as much to stay in place when compared to the competition.

Then again, maybe I don't know shit about the market, and I'm completely wrong.

 

I'll admit I don't know or understand the market at all, but reading Sneakers' post it seems Fort Worth's staff  is huge -- bloated? -- for a paper that size (220K daily, 320K Sunday).

Do you really need an Oklahoma beat writer in Texas? Do you really need a  Big 12 writer when you've got 4 or 5 beats on Big 12 schools plus a national college writer?
A "handful" of GAs on top of all those "national" beats?
Plus bureaus to cover preps and "help" on other beats.

Damn, that's a whole lot of people.

 

1. yes. norman is closer to fort worth than austin. lubbock? not even close

2. need? maybe not, but shit, i think it's pretty damn good that a paper is that aggressive in its coverage. and i'm guessing readers in texas appreciate it