UPDATED JULY 10: Tim Sullivan to Courier-Journal

Re: Eric Crawford, Rick Bozich leaving the Louisville Courier-Journal

Contracts are more than most folk at papers get.

Folks will take their chance on getting cut loose before or at the end of a two-year deal. And you can't blame 'em.

 

Re: Eric Crawford, Rick Bozich leaving the Louisville Courier-Journal

So what's the real story here? I can't ever recall two big names leaving a newspaper for a TV station in the same market. Local TV is facing the same pressure as newspapers, so it's not like they have a pot of money to throw around. Anybody got some scoop?

 

Re: Eric Crawford, Rick Bozich leaving the Louisville Courier-Journal

That's true but that's mainly a reflection of increasing number of opportunities on the web for writers, which is one bright spot in all this doom and gloom.

They all hurt, and that's some great talent, but at least we have hired someone to replace each one.

 

Re: Eric Crawford, Rick Bozich leaving the Louisville Courier-Journal

OK.

So since this seems to be a pattern with you based on our side conversation, I'll try to clarify.

If the San Antonio Spurs suddenly fired their starting five and signed a bunch of guys from this site, is it not a shell of a team? Is a 1-for-1 body exchange equal to not losing anything? Because I feel like you're trying to twist what I said, or at least arguing a point no one is making.

 

Re: Eric Crawford, Rick Bozich leaving the Louisville Courier-Journal

Several of the people you mention as being gone were hired to replace others on your list so that while we have lost good people we have always been able to hire people.

 

Re: Eric Crawford, Rick Bozich leaving the Louisville Courier-Journal

We'll agree to disagree.

 

Re: Eric Crawford, Rick Bozich leaving the Louisville Courier-Journal

I'm shocked this hasn't happened more and more.

Local TV has competition in virtually every market, so they're competing for ad dollars. It, like newspapers, has print coverage via an online site (and with social media and online reporting, there is a lot of parity). But the big difference is, local TV has a business model that includes being able to sell enough advertising to make money while giving the product away for free.

We've seen some sports-related cable networks (ESPN, Comcast Sports Net) hire "local" beat writers in several larger markets, but TV stations have the capital to be able to hire someone with a name and a voice to write a regular column, provide regular commentary on-air, and by virtue of that, become the go-to places for news in their communities. Great get for the TV station, huge loss for the C-J, which is another casualty of the Gannett business model: buy a paper in a one-paper town where there's presumably no competition, cut the staff (costs) to the bone, and as long as who's left can make it look like USA Today, all is well. Unfortunately, that business model went away about the same time the Internet was invented, because there is true head-to-head competition nowadays, and TV has a leaner business model and understands how to thrive in a competitive market (and understands that personalities draw viewers/readers, rather than seeing the writers as stuff to fill the space in-between the ads, which is how way too many newspaper management types see things, especially at certain large newspaper companies that publish colorful national daily newspapers).

 

Re: Eric Crawford, Rick Bozich leaving the Louisville Courier-Journal

Is Harry Bryan still at the C-J? Can't remember if I saw that he left/retired or if I'm imagining things.

I started in the biz in the Louisville area. I don't know if there's a single C-J sportswriter left from when I was around in the late 90s other than Jennie Rees.

Bozich was a fantastic columnist for the C-J and he had a great voice for his readers on both sides of the river. Best of luck to him and Crawford.

 

Re: Eric Crawford, Rick Bozich leaving the Louisville Courier-Journal

Harry took an early retirement. Creig Ewing is the interim SE, I believe.

IJAG, here's another person: Jerry Brewer.

 

Re: Eric Crawford, Rick Bozich leaving the Louisville Courier-Journal

Good for 2 good guys to escape the Gannett Gulag.

Mr. Ewing: Whistle past the graveyard all you want. When Bozich walked off, he took his reputation, his contacts, his followers and his historic perspective with him. The paper can hire 2 writers to replace the 2 departures but ... Red Smith ain't walkin' through that door. I understand your pride in product but as a 35-year newspaper veteran who got out of town before the posse arrived, you're standing on a beach trying to hold back the ocean.

 

Re: Eric Crawford, Rick Bozich leaving the Louisville Courier-Journal

Deck chairs . . . Titanic.

Best of luck. You'll need every bit of it.

 

Re: Eric Crawford, Rick Bozich leaving the Louisville Courier-Journal

Love the comments shown below the C-J piece . . . UK denizens bitching about Tipton because he calls a spade a spade, and others bitching about the just-departed because they allegedly pay too much attention to UK . . . you can't make it up . . . I love the town, but the local sporting loyalties frequently result in reality blindness.