HALF! Bloomsburg, Pa., takes a machete to sports

Eight or nine, along with Division II Bloomsburg University. Included in the area are Southern Columbia and Berwick, who have around a dozen state football championships between them.

I'd also like to say that their weekly prep football tab was very well done. It was more like a magazine than simply a special section with just head-to-head previews. I always made sure to pick up a copy whenever I was up that way during Fridays in the fall.

 

Given its location, that company used to have the world by the short ones not so many years ago. They were running consistent color before the larger papers in the general area (including Harrisburg, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, etc.) even came close. They were making money hand over fist on commercial printing. The publisher was into scuba diving and they put out a speciality publication about that. They had a couple of weeklies they owned at one time. And when Berwick was really getting to be a power in high school football, they were in the middle of that, too. They had some really fine people in those days. I've lost track of them over the years, but they were quite an operation in their day.

 

It may be a little premature to say their day is done, although I'm sickened by the layoffs. Don't get me wrong, I understand cuts in these timers. But to decimate the sports dept. and leave news untouched -- especially when we're talking about two outstanding sports guys, and I can think of at least three deadbeat news reporters there off the top of my head -- well, frankly, it's embarrassing. The PE was always small in circulation only. It thought big and committed the type of people and resources needed to achieve those ambitions. I'm saddened by the way these layoffs fly in the face of those high standards.

 

It just reinforces the fact that the quality of one's work, or the amount if seniority one has, has NOTHING to do with this. We've seen a lot of good, hard-working, talented people let go through no fault of their own.

 

I'm not afraid of outing myself in this fiasco, I'm sure I've done it before on here. But as one of the two who were laid off, is was a little desparaging. But to be honest, it couldn't have happened to me at a better time. I've landed on my feet pretty well and just got off of the phone to accept a full-time gig with the Williamsport Sun-Gazette in their sports department. I feel for Scott because of his situation and I feel for the guys left at the PE because I know how much we prided ourselves on doing things the right way, and now, with the staff they're limited to, I think they, as well as I, know it's going to be very tough to keep that up considering what the big plan is that is being laid out by the ME.

I started at the PE right before my senior year of high school in 2000 and got to have quite an interesting experience growing up myself as I covered other kids who were growing up. It was a great place to work and I got to work with some pretty damn cool people in and out of the office. I'll miss it, but I'm hoping this next stop for me will only help me grow even more as a person and as a writer. I know there's not a future for this business but it's all I've ever wanted to do and I'll keep doing it until they tell me I can't anymore.

Thanks everyone for the kind words about the paper. I hold far more pride in our 4 section awards than any individual award I've won, and I'm sure the other guys feel the same way.

 

Well, that didn't take very long. Congratulations.

Tell Ben I said hello.

 

Congrats on the new gig Mitch. Keep working hard and there will always be a place for you in this biz. Best of luck.

 

My congrats too. You're one of the good ones; I'm not surprised in the least.

(They do allow bylines up there by now, don't they? )