The Athletic ... any thoughts ...

I will say this, for all the sports talk radio I listen to, I can't remember the last person from The Athletic on as a guest. Maybe Stewart Mandel during bowl season. I think that is where you want your "names." Rarely do I care about the name of a writer unless it is a feature, and even then I'll only check on page 2 if I really get sucked in and notice some quality writing.

 

A media outlet you can root for. Be careful; you might break out in hives.

 

You don't want "name" beat writers because they have name recognition on the radio (although that's a plus). You want them because they are good, and when you read their stories, you (at least subconsciously) say to yourself, "That was damn good." And a lot of beat writers are well-known because they're good!

 

On paper, that sounds right. In practice, in today's climate, you might be underestimating the multimedia angle a slight bit.

 

Is it weird that they need three people to cover the Phillies?

 

I hope it works, but having been thru a couple dot com busts myself, I fear I know how this is going to end, sooner than anybody wants.

 

Three people on baseball is not a bad idea with all the content that gets produced. Granted it might be hard for three people to break down an August Phillies-Reds game if both teams aren't any good, but it seems like a decent idea with covering the Red Sox, Dodgers, Yankees etc.

 

Yes, it may not end well.

 

We have two two-man beats in Denver: Broncos and Rockies. For both, I wish we had the staff to place three people on them. They're absolute grinds for completely different reasons. (Rockies are usually our second-most read sports topic behind Broncos.) In a town like Philadelphia and wanting to cover things the way The Athletic strives to, I think you need three.

 

That's a good approach to have multiple beat writers. I can totally understand the grind as someone who was responsible for three different sets of content for a beat even though it was only home games.

 

Baseball almost has to be a two- or three-man operation if it's the hometown paper. Counterproductive to have one person working every damned day for seven or eight months straight.

 

What are you talking about? Newspapers have one beat writer, period. You work every day and don't complain about it and don't dare put more than 40 hours on your timecard. And if the week has a holiday in it you put 32 hours and get 8 free hours. Look if you cover an MLB team and put your real hours it's 90 plus per week and no news organization will stand for that. That's why newspaper suits are pretty much the lowest form of low. They know the reporters are working 80 to 90 and getting paid 40.