Clarion-Ledger drops Southern Miss beat

I've been sports editor of The Clarion-Ledger since May of 2002. During that time, the only "issue" regarding the switching of beat reporters that I'm aware of is when Todd Kelly moved from the Miss. State beat to high schools because he did not want to move to Starkville and wanted to remain in Jackson, where he has lived for some 20 years. Wasn't really an "issue" at all. We had an opening covering preps, Todd loves doing it and does a great job. Our MSU, UM and USM writers now live in Starkville, Oxford and Hattiesburg, respectively.

Robert Wilson covered high schools here for many years. He covered USM for several years. When I came in as sports editor, he had already been switched back to covering high schools. When he resigned in June of 2004 to publish a Christian-based, sports-themed magazine is when Todd moved back to covering preps and we hired from outside to fill our MSU beat. There might have been some bigger "issues" regarding the rotation of beats before 2002, but there hasn't been since I've been here.

 

and to add to the timeline - Tim moved to the USM beat sometime in the fall of 2001

 

or actually, moved to the C-L to cover USM. He moved from the Hattiesburg paper, where he'd been on the USM beat for years.

 

Gotta love Rusty laying the smacketh down on some candy asses in here.

rb

 

Kudos to Rusty for coming on here and setting the record straight.
I do know that the Des Moines Register - another fine Gannett property - rotates its Iowa and Iowa State beat writers on a regular basis. I believe both live in Des Moines and commute to Ames and Iowa City, respectively.

 

Is it me, or does rotating beat writers sound ridiculous to anyone else?

 

Rotating beat writers is healthy. It refreshes the batteries and helps keep reporters from getting too close to the schools/teams/people they cover. I worked as a beat writer here for 14 years, 6 on MSU, 6 on Ole Miss and then 2 more on MSU before going to the Courier-Journal for 4 years. (Yes, KV and DB, I'm old. I know that. Don't remind me.) Every change was good for me as a reporter. It worked here, then, because we all lived in Jackson and drove back and forth. There was not a big move involved when we rotated the beats. It works fine in bigger cities where you have several big beats and everyone lives in the same area. It's more difficult now at our place because we require the beat writers to live in Oxford, Starkville and Hattiesburg. Rotating beats would required relocating people. Not that we won't do it, but it's more difficult.

 

What I took from Rusty's latest post ... blahblahblah ... I am old ... blahblahblah ... I like Bass ale and wings ... blahblahblah ... I am gearing up for the Champions Tour ... blahblahblah ...



rb

 

Do you mean rotating beats on a weekly basis or yearly? Cause I took the earlier poster to suggest nobody covered the same team twice in two weeks.

 

Rusty,

What people really want to know, I'm thinking, is why you dumped a beat and an experienced reporter.

 

First off, RB might not know a candy-ass if he saw one.

Now, the Ole Miss writer I'm thinking of was Robert Falkoff. (circa 2000-01)
I researched a bit and found some info.
He was not, I was told, in favor of the beat-switch (which happened before Rusty became editor) after having covered Ole Miss.
He was slotted for something new and apparently wasn't happy.
His "farewell column" said as much, as I remember.
If I'm not mistaken he went to cover Major League Baseball.

Also, saw where Tim D. posted some blog info on 3 USM JUCO signees today so it's good to see him still working his sources.
With Jeff Bower slated to coach the USM ballers one last time in the bowl, it will be interesting to see if Doherty likewise gets one last byline or two from the PapaJohns Bowl.

 

Robert Falkoff lived in Jackson when he worked for The Clarion-Ledger. IIRC, Sekou Smith was the first of our beat reporters to live outside of the Jackson area. We did rotate the beats, but only every 3 to 5 years. The idea was to give the beat reporters a fresh set of stories and people to cover.

I know the arguments for and against such a policy. I know them from a reporter's angle (I covered Jackson State for 1 1/2 years and Ole Miss for 2 1/2 years and Mississippi State for five) and from a sports editor's angle (six years).

People growing stale on their beats is a topic worthy of its own thread, not just on a sports journalists site but on something like Romenesko. Ever wonder why so much Washington reporting is so passive and lifeless?

Ideally, assignments change frequently enough to keep reporters fresh but infrequently enough that they and the paper can profit from the sources and perspective that time on the beat can provide. BTW, it would be very wrong to think that sources and perspective established while covering Ole Miss would not serve a reporter well while covering Mississippi State.