Did the D&C stop covering the Bills?

[Lori]

MediaNewsGroup

 

If Hades exists, there's a special place waiting for Lean Dean Singleton.

[Chalkie Gerzowski]

If Hades exists, there's a special place waiting for Lean Dean Singleton.

 

 

His idea of outsourcing copy editing is absolutely brilliant.

[todd]

But why not bring up Matthews? :-) Every paper needs a writer who only covers horse racing!

 

Keith McShea kicks some serious butt on preps. He was already going to a ton of games before he added the liveblogs, videos, and all that. Whenever we start talking about preps coverage on our sportswriting board, I brag him up something fierce, because I think he's doing great work.

 

As for the D+C, I expect them to run wire for something like this. To be honest, that's why it's there.

Leo's no longer on the beat except for columns off home games (Scott Pitoniak's former role), and while the Bills are Sal's primary responsibility, he also has other assignments. And don't even bother asking about Matthews. Plus, like Chuck Pollock at the TH, they're 70 miles away, meaning they need to have decent advance notice of any press conferences/availability to make it there.

 

They're also a Gannett shop, and that does make a difference; GCI has emphasized shifting to AP and sharing stories with other papers in the chain. (Penny-pinching? You bet.) One near NYC used to cover all the city teams, but last summer, they decided to drop those beats -- and lay off the writers -- to go with wire copy for everything except Yankees. Bad news for those reporters, obviously, but also for the fans. For example, their Giants and Jets blogs are still linked on their sports page, but they stopped last Aug. 26.

 

(Course, I guess that's better than what the D+C did to Pitoniak -- his photo was removed and his blog deleted within hours of his layoff, much like the Bills editing Dick Jauron out of the team photo.)

[GOBILLS78]

 

His idea of outsourcing copy editing is absolutely brilliant.

 

Don't laugh. There will be 12-year-olds in Mumbai laying out U.S.-based pages by the end of this decade.

[Chalkie Gerzowski]

Don't laugh. There will be 12-year-olds in Mumbai laying out U.S.-based pages by the end of this decade.

 

in "burnt sienna"... or maybe "periwinkle" with a shaded background.

[Lori]

 

His idea of outsourcing copy editing is absolutely brilliant.

Tell me. A friend is freshly out of work because of that plan. He and I were joking around on Twitter back when it looked like the Bills were never going to hire a HC, saying maybe he should put in for it after the paper laid him off.

Just kidding, right? That same afternoon, he went into work to find out his job was moving four hours away.

 

Pure genius.

 

But why not bring up Matthews? :-) Every paper needs a writer who only covers horse racing!

To me, Matthews' thoughts on the Bills are no more relevant than anyone's on this board -- and less than some -- until he actually shows up at RWS to cover a game. I'd much rather read Leo Roth. Just my opinion.

[todd]

To me, Matthews' thoughts on the Bills are no more relevant than anyone's on this board -- and less than some -- until he actually shows up at RWS to cover a game. I'd much rather read Leo Roth. Just my opinion.

 

My opinion is congruent with yours.

 

I must admit that I will occasionally tune in to his show on the way home from work. My commute is 15 minutes max. That's enough, especially when I get to hear him spend 15 minutes on the exceedingly popular sport of regional horse racing.

[Tortured Soul]

To me, Matthews' thoughts on the Bills are no more relevant than anyone's on this board -- and less than some -- until he actually shows up at RWS to cover a game. I'd much rather read Leo Roth. Just my opinion.

I don't think Maiorana or Roth can hold a candle to Wilson or Gaughan in terms of insight into the team.

[Lori]

I don't think Maiorana or Roth can hold a candle to Wilson or Gaughan in terms of insight into the team.

Is that because The News, as the hometown "paper of record," puts more emphasis on covering them? Might be. As I noted, Leo's now on the outdoors beat, and Sal's bouncing between Sabres-Knighthawks-college/high school games this time of the year. Allen also picks up some other stories -- saw him on press row at a Bonnies basketball game a couple of weeks back, because he covered new HOF inductee Tim Winn's high school career -- but as far as I know, Mark's workload is entirely devoted to Bills/NFL coverage.

 

And that's good for us, because he's damn good at his job. The Pro Football Writers knew what they were doing when they elected him VP. (Believe he takes over as president next year...)

[Chalkie Gerzowski]

Tell me. A friend is freshly out of work because of that plan. He and I were joking around on Twitter back when it looked like the Bills were never going to hire a HC, saying maybe he should put in for it after the paper laid him off.

Just kidding, right? That same afternoon, he went into work to find out his job was moving four hours away.

 

Pure genius.

 

This wasn't the individual from Hanover I take it then?

[Red]

True. They haven't completely missed the buyout trend, but unlike Gannett (and most of the other chains), Warren Buffett isn't slashing jobs left and right to try to squeeze the last drop of profit out of the paper.

 

I've lived in 3 nice sized cities since leaving Buffalo in 1999.

 

Los Angeles, Tampa, and DC (where I now live).

 

None of these "big city" papers, NONE of them, have the in-depth sports coverage of the Buffalo News. The Los Angeles Times covers the Lakers and Dodgers, but you would not even know that they have a hockey team. And forget about the rest of the nation. Forget about the NFL.

 

Tampa was big on their Bucs and Lightning, and did cover baseball (in part because of the D-Rays but also in part because- I think- so many clubs have spring training in Florida) to a reasonable degree- but the coverage of any team outside of the region was pathetic.

 

DC is probably the worst. Sure, the 'Skins, Nationals, and Caps all get their fair share. And the Wizards get some play too. But as far as anything in-depth or truly interesting like a Larry Felser or Mark Gaughan Sunday edition about something other than the locals is hard to come by. I would think that for a paper in the nations capital, they could try a little harder for more of a national "feel".

 

IMO- The Buffalo News sports reporting beats all 3...hands down!

[Lori]

This wasn't the individual from Hanover I take it then?

Nope, this one's outside D.C. and closer to my age. (The other one was fresh out of J-school. Think he retreated to college for a master's in something else.)

 

And as of 23 minutes ago (according to my Facebook page) I can add another name to that ever-lengthening list, because Tribune's doing the same thing with Newport News. Dammit.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-...74.story?page=1

[Chalkie Gerzowski]

Nope, this one's outside D.C. and closer to my age. (The other one was fresh out of J-school. Think he retreated to college for a master's in something else.)

 

And as of 23 minutes ago (according to my Facebook page) I can add another name to that ever-lengthening list, because Tribune's doing the same thing with Newport News. Dammit.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-...74.story?page=1

 

They were up to paginating three papers at the time I left. Not sure if they decided to bring in anymore.

[Lori]

They were up to paginating three papers at the time I left. Not sure if they decided to bring in anymore.

Can hardly wait until this reaches its natural conclusion, and a desker in India is trying to proof a football game story from Palmyra-Macedon vs. Irondequoit.

[Green Lightning]

I'm not trying to bash the paper, and I understand if they did. I live in NYC, and the papers have cut back on covering teams on the road. I just want to know.

 

 

Road games often don't get covered. It's a reflection of how the rest of the paper is run. First off, the actual size of the paper has shrunk - not just number of pages, but in actual size. It's tiny. In ROC, we believe they are getting ready to make the D&C a local insert in USA Today for our region. The editorial board ranks as one of the worst I've read. For sports, the writing is tired and stories few. I read about four papers a day online after the 6-8 minutes it takes to read the D&C. You starve for good Bills coverage and were only 60 miles east!

[Chalkie Gerzowski]

Can hardly wait until this reaches its natural conclusion, and a desker in India is trying to proof a football game story from Palmyra-Macedon vs. Irondequoit.

 

and inserts a cricket box score.

[Lori]

Road games often don't get covered. It's a reflection of how the rest of the paper is run. First off, the actual size of the paper has shrunk - not just number of pages, but in actual size. It's tiny. In ROC, we believe they are getting ready to make the D&C a local insert in USA Today for our region. The editorial board ranks as one of the worst I've read. For sports, the writing is tired and stories few. I read about four papers a day online after the 6-8 minutes it takes to read the D&C. You starve for good Bills coverage and were only 60 miles east!

The "local wrap" rumor started at one of my old hangouts a couple of years ago:

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/ind...ic,59854.0.html

 

Rochester wasn't mentioned as one of the targets, though. Seemed like they were aiming more at the smaller dailies. Of course, you also have the problem that USAT doesn't publish on weekends, when most of the advertising inserts run, so there would still have to be full-service local papers on those days.

 

Haven't heard too much about this lately ... but you can count on the idea that they're going to keep making more and more of their content digital. Blogs (including Maiorana's brand-new "Ultimate Season" project about the '78 Yankees/Red Sox), live-tweeting games, stuff like that.

 

Speaking of which, here's Sal's reaction to the latest free-agent signings -- in blog form only, not in print: Is That a Pulse I Detect on OBD?

[BillsFan-4-Ever]

maybe they are just tired of complaining about the Bills.

[joemac]

Living in Rochester, I can't tell you how disappointed I have been in the demise of the local paper. There is very little local news any more and the sports page has deteriorated to the point where it is not worth the cost. I a

lways thought Sal was a complainer and found nothing but fault with the Bills. Leo was more balanced but he has moved on to the outdoor beat.

 

The rest of the paper completely lacks any in depth coverage of most topics, and since they

moved the business page from the sports section, my GF and I can't divide up the paper in the morning. She wants local and living, I want the front sections sports and business. Can't do that with the changes. We let our subscription go to just Sunday's for the ads and noticed Tops is no longer putting an ad in the sunday paper, but using direct mail here in Rochester.

[thewildrabbit]

Matthews has always stunk on football, I can recall sending him letters back in the 70's because some of his articles on the Bills had the stats all wrong. Which showed me he didn't even research on the subject he was writing about, it still makes me wonder how he has kept his job all these years.