As you probably already know, the Sun-Times Media Group (parent company of The Beacon News) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy today.
What will that mean for this blog? Well, hopefully nothing. But the owner of this blog has not been in a particularly good mood today.
To honor the fact that I'm pissed off, please visit angryjournalist.com.
I cover high school sports for a community paper. I can understand everyone's plight right now with what's going on a in newspaper business. It's not a fun time for anyone in this profession not to mention people who can be laid off in their respective jobs. I pray the Record does not go out of business because if it does, I am out of work, and my sportswriting career is all but over. It probably is anyway for me with the way things are changing with the media.
How did it get to this point? I am a newspaper guy. I like to read my sports on the newspaper not on the web. I always read the Electronic Edition of the Star-Tribune and the Pioneer Press, the papers in the Twin Cities, rather than read on the web. There is something about reading the sports news through a newspaper.
I work at a college library too, and I always read the newspapers in our rack. I like drinking my coffee as I read through the paper. It's nice that way.
I am not sure why people don't read the newspapers. I like to think sports fans read their info abour their team the next day in their newspaper. I just love the designs and the layout that come in my sports section in the paper. The Sun-Times have the best back page in the country, and I just like how it's designed in the paper. I have to think in Chicago, there is use for newspapers.
What happened with the Rocky Mountain News and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer was sad as both newspapers are extincted. I know the P-I (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) is a web format, but that will never work out. I know the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press have reduced their sports coverage dramatically to the point all of its content is now on the web than on the paper. Now, it's become a domino effect.
How did it come down to this? This is not great for sports fans, who wants to get their stuff. Sports journalists work very hard at what they do. There are writers I disagree with, but I respect the job they do as journalists.
Fans better take advantage of reading the newspapers while it's surviving.
There are a lot of reasons that it got to this point. But I'm sure you'll understand, I can't go into specifics.