Indy Star major shakeup...

When Jason LaCanfora left The Washington Post, Jason Reid slid over to his position as Redskins Insider and Rick Maese took Reid's job as the traditional beat reporter. I don't think anyone viewed it as Reid getting a promotion or Maese being second to Reid on the beat.

 

These are great moves. Chappell is a great dude but it was time for change. Just because you have covered a beat forever doesn't mean you should continue to. Time for new challenges. Hutchens came back from the dead to do a credible job on IU and he should do fine on recruiting which is becoming huge for newspapers across the country. Phillip B. Wilson will also end up just fine. He always has. I like Mike Wells on the Colts as a new challenge for him. He will do well. Give the Indy Star credit for making some bold moves during these trying times.

 

"they'll be hiring from outside for IU, Butler and Pacers beats ..........."

Hard to believe anyone is hiring from the outside to fill two or three beats unless two or three people left the newspaper.

 

They are staying in house for the Butler beat. Zak Keefer takes over that one.

Mike Wells and Terry Hutchens have both said publically there will be outside hires for their beats, Pacers and IU respectively.

Still can't recall ever seeing damn near every beat getting new blood all at once.

EDIT: Zak Keefer, not high school Mr. Basketball Zak Irvin taking over Butler beat.

 

It seems to me that they are doing a major disservice to the new people on the beats by keeping the demoted former beat writers in the co-pilot's chair. It'd be like firing a coach and keeping him on as offensive or defensive coordinator for the next guy.

 

There are so many different ways papers handle having multiple NFL writers. The Journal Sentinel has Bob McGinn and Tom Silverstein. Is either a backup? Hell no... The Denver Post has Mike Klis and Jeff Legwold, neither is a "backup" There are about a zillion similar examples...

Some places always assume that whoever writes the gamer is the lead guy. It is not always the case.

 

Story from the Indy Biz Journal on the shakeup:

http://www.ibj.com/the-score-2013-06-27-indianapolis-star-sports-department-getting-major-overhaul/PARAMS/post/42175

From the article: Very telling quote from Hutch from his FB page:

 

I had a SE who came in and talked about how he was going to shake up all the major beats. He went on and on about how nobody should ever be on a beat for more than 3-5 years and at the time, all of the pro beat writers had held their jobs for longer than that. People started freaking the fuck out.

When the SE left four years later, he hadn't moved anybody.

 

I don't understand the idea of shaking up the beats just to shake them up.

Now if someone is just covering it by rote, OK.

 

Had a situation similar to Mizzou's at a small daily when I was on newsside, new ME came in and wanted to change beats around just because he could. Or, if our sister paper had developed a story similar to one we had, he seemed more interested in running theirs than ours, even though theirs was in a different county about 30 miles away where we only had a few readers. I was sort of a hybrid city and wire editor, so felt an obligation to stick up for our reporters every time. He only lasted about six months.

 

Change is good. If you are a reporter, that's what you do, report. No one is irreplaceable. Many people think otherwise but that is not the case.
For the guys who have been reassigned, I'm sure they will get over it and be professional about going out and doing their job. The most important thing here is that no one is losing a job. Let's keep that in mind.

 

I can only imply that had anyone not accepted the reassignment, it would have come with a job loss.