Bucky Gleason Leaving TBN After Requesting a Buyout - Jerry Sullivan and Now Tim Graham Out

[PromoTheRobot]

1 hour ago, stony said:

They don't.  Curious if they ever get one. 

 

Actually I've read one is starting.

 

But don't forget about the Buffalo Star website 

Edited May 28, 2018 by PromoTheRobot

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

So did Sully officially take the buyout too, reading through here saw a couple of posts stating something like "hear Sully is leaving too" didn't see anything too official sounding unless I missed it??  Wonder if last Friday was the deadline for employees to sign up for the offer, thta's why both announced the same day?

[ndirish1978]

On 5/25/2018 at 12:16 PM, oldmanfan said:

I grew up reading the Courier, the News, and the Tonawanda News every day.  To me it's just incredibly sad to see so many papers going downhill.  What we're going to be left with a wannabe journalists writing their blogs and such,  Internet sites masquerading as news sources that simply post whatever they can as quick as they can, and such.  True good journalism, involving solid research, solid use of sources, integrative study of local issues, and solid writing is rapidly becoming a thing of the past.

 

Maybe they can figure out a way to replace the printed page with the electronic page and still figure out some kind of profit margin.  But for me it will never replace the feeling of the paper in your hands and you turned pages to get your news.

 

Times change. Remember when 411 was a thing and you had to pay per search for information you can get for free in about a second now? That's what these sports columnists at TBN are. They don't provide inside information, they just posted click-bait drivel to try and drive traffic to the site in order to justify getting paid for being professional trolls. Newspapers are/were important because they provided information to an uninformed public. Some time in the 90s when personality-driven content became the trendy thing a bunch of sports columnists stopped including insider info in their writing and decided to just make "hot takes" in order to grow their personal brands. People are no longer willing to pay for that crap. TBN sports desk doomed itself when it ostracized itself from the teams it covered and started getting scooped by the national media. I don't need a TBN sub to get Bills news, I just need a twitter feed. Why would I pay money to read poorly written troll pieces by Bucky and Sullivan? The only way for local journalists to maintain relevancy is to provide the local audience with information that national reporters don't have access to. TBN has failed in that and has only themselves to blame for it.    

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

2 hours ago, Ed_Formerly_of_Roch said:

So did Sully officially take the buyout too?...

Strange times afoot.  Goodbye Schtupp, welcome to 4 hours of 'Jerry and the Bulldog' M - F 4 to 7 pm.  ?

[BuffaloRush]

4 hours ago, Ed_Formerly_of_Roch said:

So did Sully officially take the buyout too, reading through here saw a couple of posts stating something like "hear Sully is leaving too" didn't see anything too official sounding unless I missed it??  Wonder if last Friday was the deadline for employees to sign up for the offer, thta's why both announced the same day?

 

Nothing new been announced yet, so it possible he could very well still be employed. He hasn’t tweeted for nearly a week though, so take that for what it’s worth.  Still I think if he was done, it would have been announced by now 

[Punt75]

On 5/25/2018 at 1:09 PM, Lurker said:

  

With nearly half a million daily readers?    Not anytime soon, especially if they get their costs down with these buyouts.

 

And it's a banner day with the Buckster moving on and rumors of Sully thinking about it...

 

The Buffalo News is a daily newspaper published in Buffalo, New York. It is the largest paper outside of the New York City area.^[2][3]

Circulation

As of 2016, The Buffalo News had a daily circulation of 147,085 copies copies.^[2]

History

 

Front page of The Buffalo News

The Buffalo News was first published in 1880 as The Buffalo Evening News on Sundays. It was founded by Edward H. Butler. In 1977, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway company purchased the paper and began publishing it on a daily basis. In 1982, the name changed from The Buffalo Evening News to The Buffalo News, at which time it began publishing both morning and evening editions. In 2006, the paper ceased publishing evening editions and became a morning paper. The Buffalo News publishes three morning editions: the Western New York, Final, and Niagara editions.^[2][3]

 

[Lurker]

1 hour ago, Punt75 said:

 

As of 2016, The Buffalo News had a daily circulation of 147,085 copies copies.^[2]

 

Subcriptions are  only part of the daily readership.   Newsbox and retail sales are also a large factor.

 

   https://www.statista.com/statistics/229549/readers-of-the-buffalo-news-bf-daily-edition/

 

"This statistic illustrates the number of Buffalo News readers (Buffalo) (daily edition) in the United States from spring 2008 to spring 2017. In spring 2017, the number of Buffalo News readers amounted to 0.46 million."

 

 

Edited May 29, 2018 by Lurker

[Gordio]

On ‎5‎/‎25‎/‎2018 at 6:26 PM, BillsPride12 said:

Do you have any examples of this?  I don't doubt this but I am just curious as it's an interesting topic.  I can vaguely remember hearing some reports of Kane and Eichel hanging out gambling together in Vegas before they played the Knights this season but other than that I really haven't heard of any instances of those two getting into any bad situations together.  

 

 

I do have some specific examples but I am really not comfortable sharing them on this board.  Some of the stuff my friend told me was pretty bad. 

[BillsFan4]

18 hours ago, ndirish1978 said:

 

Times change. Remember when 411 was a thing and you had to pay per search for information you can get for free in about a second now? That's what these sports columnists at TBN are. They don't provide inside information, they just posted click-bait drivel to try and drive traffic to the site in order to justify getting paid for being professional trolls. Newspapers are/were important because they provided information to an uninformed public. Some time in the 90s when personality-driven content became the trendy thing a bunch of sports columnists stopped including insider info in their writing and decided to just make "hot takes" in order to grow their personal brands. People are no longer willing to pay for that crap. TBN sports desk doomed itself when it ostracized itself from the teams it covered and started getting scooped by the national media. I don't need a TBN sub to get Bills news, I just need a twitter feed. Why would I pay money to read poorly written troll pieces by Bucky and Sullivan? The only way for local journalists to maintain relevancy is to provide the local audience with information that national reporters don't have access to. TBN has failed in that and has only themselves to blame for it.    

 

Agreed. 

 

I used to really love reading the behind the scenes/inside info pieces the Buffalo News would write. 

 

It was a little while after Pegula bought the Sabres that those types of pieces just started drying up. There were lots of rumors about a falling out between TBN and the Pegulas (I believe due to the constant litany of negative pieces). 

 

Once in a while I will see an inside access piece by Vic Carucci, or maybe John Vogl (who is now leaving...). But they are very very few and far between. 

 

So there's not much point in paying to read generic pieces that I can also find in 10 other places for free. 

 

 

 

Maybe bringing in some new blood will change this? I hope so. I miss the inside access stuff. 

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

4 hours ago, Gordio said:

 

 

I do have some specific examples but I am really not comfortable sharing them on this board.  Some of the stuff my friend told me was pretty bad. 

Then fish, or cut bait.

[26CornerBlitz]

 

[zow2]

Maybe with Sullivan gone and the other longtime Buffalo News sports voices, this will coincide with the Bills & Sabres becoming super competitive again and annual playoff teams.

[May Day 10]

Its a shame.  

 

I know he is unpopular, but look at the state of both franchises in the 2000s.  Wouldn't want people who sugar-coat it.

[Punching Bag]

9 minutes ago, 26CornerBlitz said:

'They felt my voice was becoming bad for business." - No Kidding!

[theesir]

Wow, Seems Sullivan was pushed out based on his announcement. Took the buyout AFTER they took away his column. What was he expected to do if he had no column.

Say what you want about him being a crank, but the teams around here have sucked for a long time and he was the voice that was willing to remind us after a two game winning streak by either team that there was still a lot of work to be done.
I think this is a very sad day all around for Buffalo sports. I enjoy the paper because I could read more than just a game report. I enjoyed reading the OPINION of the people that covered the team day-to-day.

What will we have now? Just game reviews and feature articles?

[Punching Bag]

"fair, objective and passionate perspective" maybe at one time but he has neither been fair nor objective for a long time and his columns seems canned NOT passionate.

[Juice_32]

5 minutes ago, May Day 10 said:

Its a shame.  

 

I know he is unpopular, but look at the state of both franchises in the 2000s.  Wouldn't want people who sugar-coat it.

 

I get this sentiment and I'm all for challenging the system. But Jerry seemed to take it to an obsessive level. He was too far gone with the negativity. I wish him well, but it was time. Onward and upward for Buffalo and its teams.

[Punching Bag]

1 minute ago, theesir said:

Wow, Seems Sullivan was pushed out based on his announcement. Took the buyout AFTER they took away his column. What was he expected to do if he had no column.

Say what you want about him being a crank, but the teams around here have sucked for a long time and he was the voice that was willing to remind us after a two game winning streak by either team that there was still a lot of work to be done.
I think this is a very sad day all around for Buffalo sports. I enjoy the paper because I could read more than just a game report. I enjoyed reading the OPINION of the people that covered the team day-to-day.

What will we have now? Just game reviews and feature articles?

 

You could replace it easily:

• Buy a copy of the Buffalo News
• lay it on floor
• take down pants
• drop a load of crap on it.

Now you have the Buffalo News with Jerry in it.

 

If still he has "passion" he will create an alternate newsletter and the dollars will just flood in!

2 minutes ago, Juice_32 said:

 

I get this sentiment and I'm all for challenging the system. But Jerry seemed to take it to an obsessive level. He was too far gone with the negativity. I wish him well, but it was time. Onward and upward for Buffalo and its teams.

 

He attacked the owners multiple times.  He should have been banned from press conferences a long time ago since he was not a reporter.

 

Maybe now without a paper to spew out venom the venom will feed back into himself and do what he was trying to do to Bills - poison myself to death.

[Dr.Sack]

Time to sign up.

[theesir]

5 minutes ago, Limeaid said:

"fair, objective and passionate perspective" maybe at one time but he has neither been fair nor objective for a long time and his columns seems canned NOT passionate.

I am asking this in all seriousness, not as a bash. How old are you? If you're fandom really took root during these dark days it's easy to see critical columns as canned. I agree the message has gotten stale, but so has the losing and there's only so many ways to say that. 

Again, if you're old enough to remember (and have read the paper) during the winning years I think you may agree, if you're younger, I feel bad because as fans you (and your contemporaries) have been dealt a ****ty hand.

[Punching Bag]

1 minute ago, Dr.Sack said:

Time to sign up.

 

Not until we see a period where he does not come back under a fake pen name.,

[PromoTheRobot]

28 minutes ago, May Day 10 said:

Its a shame.  

 

I know he is unpopular, but look at the state of both franchises in the 2000s.  Wouldn't want people who sugar-coat it.

 

23 minutes ago, Limeaid said:

"fair, objective and passionate perspective" maybe at one time but he has neither been fair nor objective for a long time and his columns seems canned NOT passionate.

 

23 minutes ago, theesir said:

Wow, Seems Sullivan was pushed out based on his announcement. Took the buyout AFTER they took away his column. What was he expected to do if he had no column.

Say what you want about him being a crank, but the teams around here have sucked for a long time and he was the voice that was willing to remind us after a two game winning streak by either team that there was still a lot of work to be done.
I think this is a very sad day all around for Buffalo sports. I enjoy the paper because I could read more than just a game report. I enjoyed reading the OPINION of the people that covered the team day-to-day.

What will we have now? Just game reviews and feature articles?

 

Sorry, but bad teams are just a sorry excuse for being a hack. Sully and Bucky weren't objective and they couldn't do analysis or break down a situation. Their forte was pointing at what went wrong after the fact. If anything they amplified the voices of frustrated fans, but nothing more than that. In Buffalo you could make a living shoveling doom and gloom. Maybe this is a sign the city is evolving past that. Start looking up.

Edited May 29, 2018 by PromoTheRobot

[Punching Bag]

1 minute ago, theesir said:

I am asking this in all seriousness, not as a bash. How old are you? If you're fandom really took root during these dark days it's easy to see critical columns as canned. I agree the message has gotten stale, but so has the losing and there's only so many ways to say that. 

Again, if you're old enough to remember (and have read the paper) during the winning years I think you may agree, if you're younger, I feel bad because as fans you (and your contemporaries) have been dealt a ****ty hand.

 

I am old enough to have worked for Courier Express.

[CommonCents]

Lots of folks complained about Sullivan to the editor and even stated he is why they wouldn’t subscribe. I’m now wondering how many will honor their word and open the wallet for that whopping 3 bucks a month. 

[PromoTheRobot]

5 minutes ago, Limeaid said:

 

He attacked the owners multiple times.  He should have been banned from press conferences a long time ago since he was not a reporter.

 

Maybe now without a paper to spew out venom the venom will feed back into himself and do what he was trying to do to Bills - poison myself to death.

 

 

Sully and Bucky seemed to appoint themselves the deciders for WNY. From day one they had the knives out for the Pegulas. (From the day Terry visited the Buffalo News to introduce himself.) I never understood that.

[JoPar_v2]

how ya feel about that paywall now boys? Seems like ol' JB was listening after all.

[Cheektowaga Chad]

Honestly its got to be a tough job to do when the teams you cover lose and lose a lot

[PromoTheRobot]

23 hours ago, Commonsense said:

Lots of folks complained about Sullivan to the editor and even stated he is why they wouldn’t subscribe. I’m now wondering how many will honor their word and open the wallet for that whopping 3 bucks a month. 

 

I signed up after Bucky's resignation. It was a step in the right direction. Sully leaving is a bonus. Everyone should definitely step up now.

22 hours ago, Cheektowaga Chad said:

Honestly its got to be a tough job to do when the teams you cover lose and lose a lot

 

Except the Bills hadn't "lost a lot" since the Pegula's owned them. They are .500. 50/50. The Mendoza line. The Sabres are a dumpster fire but it was, at least at first, part of a rebuild plan. (Something Bucky Gleason advocated for, until his about-face.)

Edited May 30, 2018 by PromoTheRobot

[Cheektowaga Chad]

8 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

 

 

Sorry, but bad teams are just a sorry excuse for being a hack. Sully and Bucky weren't objective and they couldn't do analysis or break down a situation. Their forte was was pointing at what went wrong after the fact. If anything they amplified the voices of frustrated fans, but nothing more than that. In Buffalo you could make a living shoveling doom and gloom. Maybe this is a sign the city is evolving past that. Start looking up.

to the bolded, whenever i would read their articles they read like they didnt actually know the sports they covered

[blacklabel]

What I never really cared for was the influence these guys (Bucky, Sully) had on their fellow writers and journalists. Jonah Javad is one example. He was generally pretty positive and upbeat but then he was assigned to work the Sports Talk Sunday show with a rotating cast of TBN guys. Gradually, Javad started sounding like a carbon copy of those dudes. Jay Skurski is another dude whose writing I've seen start to reflect that of his counterparts, and usually not in a positive way.

 

And I don't care if they wanna hammer on about negative aspects, that's part of the gig. It was the enthusiasm with which these guys discussed negative points. I remember watching a bit of the show last season before the KC game. Bucky very blandly provided his reasons why the Bills could win. And then he provided the reasons why they could lose and holy crap, he was like a kid on Christmas. "If Kansas City gets that run game going, WATCH OUT! It'll be over before it starts. If they can't stop the run, this team is dead in the water and KC will destroy them!!" It was like they just couldn't wait for the Bills to get their asses handed to them so they could flip open their laptops and start writing a self-congratulatory "I told you so" type of article. **** like that just gets old real fast. Same can be said for Sully. It was as if these guys had an extreme reluctance to provide any sort of praise to these teams. And Sully goes to the Super Bowl that one year and makes a complete idiot of himself with what I'm sure he felt were "hard hitting" questions but instead it was picked up nationally and people were like, "This dude is a buffoon." 

 

It was also kind of hilarious to see a number of them get their tighty whities in a bunch when McBeane put forth a concerted effort to shut down the leaks. Obviously, inside sources are a major part of being a journalist but it seemed the Pegulas and co. really were just done with the leaks and that really seemed to upset those guys. It felt like a degree of entitlement on their end. Like, "Hey, you owe it to us to provide inside info and news! We're the connection between the team and the fans for information!" That was another thing that irritated me, when these guys would be telling people on social media that "without me you get no insight on your favorite teams!" It's sweet that they find themselves to be that important but with so many media outlets and ways to stay connected, their role as a connection to inside info became minimal. They combined that self-importance with a lot of arrogance, constantly engaging with trolls or people with the most moronic takes ever and avoiding anyone with a decent question or counter-argument. 

[DrDawkinstein]

Oh Glorious Day! Oh Glorious Day!!

 

 

[PastaJoe]

His honest assessments when some wanted puff pieces will be missed. I enjoyed his days on WGR.

[sullim4]

I'm actually much more likely to buy Bills Blitz now.

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

And his columns on trying to break 100 during Bills training camp were an insult to his employers and all 172 of his fans.  Good riddance, I wonder if he'll try to weasel back as did Pergament.

[May Day 10]

So what is next for Buffalo News Sports?  Do they just fill in the voids with low-paying "talent".  End/limit the coverage?  

[Peevo]

23 hours ago, ndirish1978 said:

 

Times change. Remember when 411 was a thing and you had to pay per search for information you can get for free in about a second now? That's what these sports columnists at TBN are. They don't provide inside information, they just posted click-bait drivel to try and drive traffic to the site in order to justify getting paid for being professional trolls. Newspapers are/were important because they provided information to an uninformed public. Some time in the 90s when personality-driven content became the trendy thing a bunch of sports columnists stopped including insider info in their writing and decided to just make "hot takes" in order to grow their personal brands. People are no longer willing to pay for that crap. TBN sports desk doomed itself when it ostracized itself from the teams it covered and started getting scooped by the national media. I don't need a TBN sub to get Bills news, I just need a twitter feed. Why would I pay money to read poorly written troll pieces by Bucky and Sullivan? The only way for local journalists to maintain relevancy is to provide the local audience with information that national reporters don't have access to. TBN has failed in that and has only themselves to blame for it.    

 

 

Points for nuance and creativity.  

 

Some definite truths of the state of the media consumption business here. 

 

 

As an employee of a corporate media company, I too am gravely concerned for the long term viability of "old media."

 

While social media is going nowhere, it was and will never be "free". We sell our data to the lowest bidder every time we click "agree to the terms and conditions".

 

 

Sometimes, paying for a product has merit too, and too few see the merit in "yesterday's news".

 

At its core, we are seeing the death of strong writing.  Writing is a skill. A challenging one that requires effort, time and a knowledge of accepted rules. 

 

Does The Stadium Wall need to follow the AP Style Guide 2018? No.  Do we all need a Columbia or Missouri J school degree to post about or football team? No.

 

But it'd sure read better.

 

I think the ability to convey information, emotion, or opinion via poetry and prose is both a difficult and dying artform, with a very lax acceptable standard at very high levels of media production. 

 

There ought be at least proper sentence structure in everyday written English.  

 

Apparently none of us want to read it though.

 

Bear in mind, this is just sports department cuts.  More is coming from more important floors of that newsroom.

 

Feel free to rip on Sully, Vogl, Gleason all you want. It's just sports.  

 

I'm concerned about the future of a free press if this continues in news and political coverage. The lack of an informed electorate is dangerous for a democracy. 

 

Too many people think angels are real already. 

 

 

[DrDawkinstein]

2 minutes ago, May Day 10 said:

So what is next for Buffalo News Sports?  Do they just fill in the voids with low-paying "talent".  End/limit the coverage?  

 

Probably. It's the latest model by ESPN. Cut all high-priced talent, bring in a bunch of kids and nobodies.

 

It's a dying medium in a flooded market.

[Buftex]

On ‎5‎/‎25‎/‎2018 at 10:42 AM, PromoTheRobot said:

The old curmudgeon Buffalo News, hopefully. Time for fresh perspective.

I know this is probably good news to some, but the way newspapers are now, don't be surprised if the Buffalo News sports page is made up of syndicated columnists.  Your local coverage of the Bills and Sabres will pretty much be WGR.

[K-9]

Hopefully, new columnists will emerge who can offer biting criticism when warranted without the childish and unprofessional snark that too often littered their work. For example, old school journalists like Larry Felser had no problem leveling strong opinions against the Bills while maintaining their professionalism which allowed them to also maintain solid relationships within organization. Bucky and Sully were esentially blacklisted because of their inability in doing so which only served to further feed their spite and cloud their objectivity far too often in their work.

[MAJBobby]

Just die already BN