SF Chron, SJ Mercury News fire Sharks beat reporters

Mostly two weeks for every year with a cap of one year's pay. Plus medical benefits.

 

Cut, cut, cut everywhere. Great reporters getting cut. This business really is starting to suck.

 

Remember when papers cutting veteran reporters was actually a rare thing? Now, it's happening daily... You could put together one hell of a section with all of the talent cut loose or bought out in the last few months...

 

Starting to?

 

Away?

How many papers in the country really can justify the huge expense of traveling with the NHL team?

 

Two weeks per year worked, max of 52 weeks covered.

 

SAN JOSE Mercury News.

SAN JOSE Sharks.

While I shouldn't be surprised by anything at this point, I'd be stunned if the Mercury News stops traveling with the Sharks. That team fills its arena 41 nights a year, not counting playoffs. To cut out half the beat coverage would alienate a sizeable chunk of the populace.

 

You ain't kiddin. Too bad they tried that before and called it The National. God, I miss that paper.

 

And he's already covering them, BTW.

While I'm posting on this, one thing about Singleton has always fascinated me. Media News is a privately operated company. I read in one of the many takeouts on him that Singleton has gone into serious debt to finance his various purchases around the country.

How does he do it? OPM? Using the cash flow from his current properties? Crazy-ass financing? How is he able to buy every Bay Area paper save the Chron (which he took a stake in), along with the Detroit News and ...?

From a business standpoint, I can't see how an already debt-laden operation can take on more. Unless he's using the cash being thrown off from the papers he already owns or some sort of creative financing device I'm not aware of.

Left Coast, you're a Singleton-ologist. Your input?

 

Let's not forget, the venerable Dean Singleton is the new chairman of the board of The Associated Press. So, not exactly farfetched he'd use wire copy for the Sharks on the road to save money.

 

He's got some debt, but he's also gotten backing of a sugar daddy in Richard Scudder.

But to make up for buying these places, he goes in and slashes and burns and tries to make them more profitable than they were before.
In the case of SoCal, no need for five Dodgers writers (San Bernardino, Ontario, San Gabriel, Long Beach, Daily News) when one will do. Same with Lakers, Angels, Kings, etc. Just combine and make, basically, one big product. And he does it in every department.
Hell, I'm surprised he hasn't told all of his SoCal papers to stop paying for the AP wire except for the Daily News, then just have the Daily News share it.

Now, he's going to do the same in the Bay Area. There will be one writer for each beat for all of the papers there. And there will be a fight for which writers get the beats. The papers eventually will all be linked through the same computer system. One desk might even put out two of the papers (see Ontario and San Bernardino sports). Columnists who were unique to one paper will show up in others.
Nevermind that by doing all this, he strips away the reputation of the products that have been put out over many years. Look at SoCal. Those papers, especially Long Beach, had great reputations. Strong writing, great products, broke news. Now, by this consolidation, they are all shells of their former selves. And not just in sports.

Yes, things change over time, money's tight everywhere, but those products have been going downhill since Singleton bought them. And it's not just there. It's everywhere the guy has been.