Houston Chronicle offering buyouts

This was on an earlier thread but it is a logical move. Brent is a good reporter and writer. His copy is pretty much a good read on a constant basis.

 

Yup.

 

So what's the buyout offer and do we know how many, if any, Sports might likely lose?

 

As a long time observer of Big 12 coverage, I want to point out while Brent Z did break the Franchione VIP Connection story, the Houston Chronicle and Morning News owned the story from that point. The Morning News was the first to print copies of the newsletter and The Chronicle was the first to report that the VIP Connection committed NCAA violations for which the school would be sanctioned. The Chronicle was also the first newspaper in the state to talk to one of the VIP members on the record and Harris also broke the story on Sherman being hired down to the Monday press conference just 24 hours after Franchione stepped down. The Chronicle was also out front on the Billy Gillispie saga. Those things said, the Chronicle coverage could suffered though Brent is a quality reporter and writer.

 

It could also rain in California. I could hit the Power Ball. Ralph Nader may become President of the United States.
Brent is more than quality and the coverage will be solid. Scoop, he's not a slouch as a journalist and he's an even nicer human being.

 

I meant no dig at Brent by calling him quality. Meant that in the most positive way. He seems like he does a good job at what he does. Don't know him personally so can't comment on the type of human being he might be. Let's just see how it works out for the Chronicle.

 

I don't see how anyone can think it is a good thing that a paper the size of the Chronicle won't be covering a Big 12 school which is nearby.

If this were a 30,000 circulation paper we were discussing, which would be sharing copy with other papers, that would be one thing.

The Houston freaking Chronicle should be covering A&M on its own, not getting copy from San Antonio.

I don't care how good the guy is or not. That's a moot point in my opinion.

 

Angola, in the old days this would've been unheard of. But times have changed, especially newspaper budgets.
What gets lost in all of this is the localization of the athletes. If one guy is covering for three or four papers, and each one asks him to do something to cater to their audience, it could drive even the most veteran of reporters bonkers.

 

Not to mention his three or four BLOGS!

 

And in related news, Steve Campbell going from columnist to GA.

http://blogs.chron.com/stevecampbell/

 

They had been getting their Cowboys copy from San Antonio, but lately many of the Cowboys-related stories in the paper have been wire, as in Jaime Aron.
And frankly, to those of us who live in Houston it does look bad to not have a Chron writer at A&M, but if they have to prioritize Texas is a more important beat, then A&M.

 

The Chron got a lot of things fast in regards to much of the above breaking news. They also got a bunch of stuff wrong.

One example: They had "Billy Gillispie to stay at A&M" the same day Brent (correctly) had Billy leaving.

Brent owns the A&M beat, and has for some time. It really isn't fair for anybody else. He's the only one of the major papers that lives in College Station, and has since the mid-90s when he worked at the Eagle.

So the Chronicle definitely won't be hurting.

That said, I agree with many of the above posters that, no mattre how good Brent is, this really makes the Chron look small-time.

And, of course, they probably don't care. To a beancounter, it is a logical way to save a buck.

Wouldn't be shocked if something goes down with the Texas beat, too, eventually.