More cutbacks coming at the Tampa Bay Times?

Is there another general columnist?

 

How many are left in sports?

 

The operative word in that sentence is "paycheck" ... but not in the context you mentioned.

 

Look for Tom Jones to move into the columnist slot. He'll do a fine job.

 

That's not unusual.

 

Well played.

 

Romano has been doing news for a couple of years. Jones will do fine -- I really like his work, but his style is far different from Shelton's.

 

Tom was a far better beat reporter. One of the best. Too often now he just sounds like a guy at the bar. Not sure it matters. You can't replace Shelton as a first read. He was the voice. But we're quickly reaching the point where the beat reporters are becoming the analysts. Some already are. Topkin is the paper's voice on the Rays, just as Stroud is for the Bucs. Tom will be a distant second on both, but still the guy I trust most on Lightning, NHL.

 

Yeah, that is a very good way to put it. I love his TV stuff and Two Cents, but it's really not going to make you stop and think.

 

I wonder if the voice of god columnist is not a thing of the past. I think most beat writers at major newspapers are talented enough that they can write a technically good column. And the columns they write on their beats are almost invariably more informative than what the columnist can write. If I was a sports editor in a major market I would give the space a second columnist occupies to my beat writers.