MediaNews Hires Free-Lancer For Seattle Series
I saw an unfamiliar name... Erick Walker... attached to the Contra Costa Times game stories on the A's and Mariners. He was listed as a correspondent. A little research on Google showed that he's a Seattle-based free-lancer.
What I should have done is ask where Joe Stiglich was, not jump on MediaNews. Ulp.
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The Bay Area's Best... Temps!

Careful, though -- he's very possibly an upgrade.
Just wait'll they hire "Bob".
gad, do I loathe Josh Kornbluth
The Hank Azaria of the SF entertainment scene. < barf >
a smart biz decision ...
... and not necessarily one inimical to readers. I personally have never understood the overkill of every single regional rag springing for airfare/hotel/per diem/insurance for a beat reporter to hit every single road series. After all, as we can all clearly see by aggregating all the coverage on the web, not only are the same damn nuggets repeated in every single beat write-up, but many of the beat writers phone it in.
To wax blogotriumphalist, what likely will be adopted as the model is something approximating a blend of the approaches of AN and MediaNews -- hiring/recruiting a local stringer/blogger who is a demonstrated/acknowledged expert on the team with, ideally, a modicum of "credentialized" access.
Jobs for NRAFs?
Maybe this is a new market for SportsNation Blogs..a temp stringer service for the new newsmedia model. Knowledgeable and passionate fans and some excellent writers.
by LongTimeFan on Sep 12, 2007 12:26 PM PDT up reply actions
generic NRAFs, I mean...
you know what I mean.
NRMF's
NRDRF's
NRPF's etc etc etc
by LongTimeFan on Sep 12, 2007 12:28 PM PDT up reply actions
'zactly
The model could be (presuming/hoping for press passes) one R(home team)F + one NR(away team)F in the press box for each game.
As long as...
...they're just covering the game, and know something decent about the players and personalities, and aren't trying to act like a beat writer, then I'm ok with them keeping costs in line. Nothing wrong with that.
coverage would be *much* more interesting ...
... if each stringer knew something indecent about the players and personalities.
I'm shocked they're doing even that.
In Vancouver, the local daily newspapers up here are both owned by the same company, and half their content is wire copy from other papers.
They don't have ANY travel budget for any of their reporters, except for the guy covering the Vancouver Canucks beat. He, in turn, puts out about 3 pages of pap a day.
The last Olympics, one of the papers here didn't send any journalists, claiming they didn't have the budget. Then they sent three executives to go watch events as spectators.
Print media is dead. The accountants and marketers have killed it cold.
the accountants and marketers are pallbearers
Craig's List killed the daily newspaper.
(An overstatement and a simplification, obviously.)
Without idiot newspaper owners...
and w/o idiot weekly chain owners ...
... who charge the same for the back-of-book AH ads, CL wouldn't exist at all.
Web to fishwraps: Drop Dead.

by The Dogfather on Sep 12, 2007 3:56 PM PDT up reply actions
But not too quickly.
I really picked a bad time to be a journalist
I pretty much know that the job market in CA sucks, so I'll probably be starting out in Wyoming or some other podunk place after graduation.
But yeah, MediaNews is pretty crappy.
thats just going to be the way it is when
newspaper classified add revenue and add revenue in genral go down there slow spiriall because of the internet. All newspapers are making less money year after year and they have to change with it to keep the paper solvent. For every overpriced classified add there was a overpaid/overexpensed empoyee to go with it. Sports is one of the first departments to get cut (do you ever count the adds in the sports section (not alot compared to other sections of the paper). in all reality there is probably a knowledgeable writer/blogger in every sports town who would do the articles for free.
by Anarch on Sep 12, 2007 7:17 PM PDT reply actions
Reason for stringer in Seattle
It had nothing to do with money. There was a death in Joe Stiglich's family.
Drat
I thought we had those money grubbing capitalist pinned down this time. We will get them next time gang.

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