Palm Beach Post

And yet they will say "thanks" to Dorsey and other experienced veterans, shoo them out the door to Web sites and feel better about the bottom line.

Morans.

 

My occasionally floated theories about some newsroom employee heading to the corporate suites armed to the teeth for a "postal" moment? Forget about that for now. I'm expecting to soon see a news-side or business-side or copy-desk employee head to the sports department armed to the teeth for his or her "postal" moment.

There already is enough envy and resentment from other departments toward Sports, in terms of the travel money spent and frequent flyer miles earned and space allotted, etc. But if the Post or any other newspaper in this day and age has to shed 100 people from its newsroom and few if any come from Sports, those damaging intramural hate feelings are going to get worse.

I'm not surprised if few, if any, sports people applied for the buyouts -- we tend to be relatively content covering our games and "heroes" overall, while Rome burns (despite all the angst on SportsJournalists.com). But I will be surprised if some of the sports folks aren't dragged by the hair into other departments and stuck in jobs to backfill for those who depart.

 

Joe, I understand what you're saying about the resentment.

But it also could be based partly on revenue production.

In some cities, Sports generates more money than a Living section or (definitely) a copy desk or maybe even a Business section. That could be a factor in the suits' decisions. In others, a good Food section may have strong ad revenue while Sports only attracts titty bars and the lawn mower dealer.

 

I'm just saying that, at every paper I've worked, there has been bitching from the other departments about Sports' alleged favored status. The bitchers ignore the long and odd hours, generally, or the fact that travel is driven by events and schedules that often screw up family lives. They ignore things like productivity, byline counts, profitability, readers' tastes, you name it. They focus more on the "what people ought to read" vs. "what people want to read" and come out clucking their tongues about interest in the Toy Dept.

I'm not saying they're right or justified. Hardly. I'm just saying it exists, and when 100 editorial jobs get lost and hardly anyone (anyone at all?) from Sports feels the pain, someone elsewhere in the newsroom is going to get pissed off about it. I'm happy for the folks who survive, but morale figures to take a real hit within any newsroom that doesn't spread the pain.

 

Joe: I understand your points. And people are going to feel the way they feel, obviously.

But I take, for example, one of the papers near me. They just went through a layoff. From a production standpoint, sports was about as small as it was going to get and still be able to get the paper out. There just was no fat to cut.

In my experience -- only mine, I can't speak for everybody at all papers -- sports production staffs tend to do more with less than any other department, and on deadlines unlike anything any other section has to deal with.

The sports writing staff would have been an easier target, but there are certain cores you have to keep covering, or what's the point of even putting out a section?

Now, is my opinion going to keep others from being resentful. Absolutely not. But those are the facts, to me.

 

Joe, you make excellent points.
I have good knowledge of the PBP, and they've been short 3-4 spots on the sports desk since the start of the year. Also, from what I know, Steve Dorsey's really their only full-time preps writer.
They're already wondering how they're going to have enough bodies to put out a section once football gears up again in a month or so, even if the sections are smaller. To say nothing of what the preps coverage might be after the layoffs.
They'd better address that if they want to keep their readers in print or on line. Not having good football coverage in Florida is suicide. Hopefully, the powers that be down there will realize that, but then again....

 

Let's face it, it sucks all around.

 

Yes, we do more with less, and historically always have. We've had music critics and food writers who felt they were overworked if they had to do one feature and one notes column a week (throw in a couple of restaurant reviews and concert reviews). The thing most of the people on the news or features sides don't get is that when revenue for newspapers started to decline, sports usually took the first hit in the form of unfilled vacancies. Then, when layoffs do have to occur, and management rightly sees that there's no fat in sports to cut, the newsies and featurettes get pissy about it.
In the meantime, a lot of sports departments were still getting sections out when down 2-3 desk guys, half the part-timers and a beat guy or two.

 

typically, there are triple the number of assignment editors per reporter in Metro compared to sports. Not sure what the deal is in West Palm Beach, but I bet it's similar.

 

it seems like a lot of papers are dropping to just one preps staff writer and a bunch of stringers these days. just seems odd.

 

Especially when said stringers can barely string words together to form a decent sentence, or the ones who do keep going back to the "Christmas came early for ... " lead. Oh well, the way things are going, departments will have one part-time writer who's good and to cover the rest of the preps: community "journalists!"

 

Yeah. They're all like that. Good generalization.