Crain's story on Trib cuts

Reader Blog on Trib cuts

Among those cut are, in sports, Melissa Isaacson and Bob Sakamoto.

Sakamoto's a big cut- he's been possibly the leading high school reporter in the area for a long time.

Also cut- the writer of their "Recession Diaries" blog

The comments to the Reader blog post raise the best point in this: it makes no sense for a newspaper to cut reporters while there is no news about cutting management.

Ahhh, management thinking at work. Cut the people who make the product- not the guys you work with.

John Mullin is on that list. If i remember correctly, he is the one who usually writes the NIU articles.

He's at least done some NIU coverage.

I wonder what effect these layoffs - as well as those by the Sun-Times - will have on the already weak coverage of NIU football? (There is no coverage of basketball.) I would assume that as the newspapers get leaner and leaner, the college sports coverage will be reduced to the bare essentials: Notre Dame, and maybe a little on Illinois and Northwestern. I have noticed that coverage of college football has diminished a little in the Sun-Times over the past couple years, while coverage of high school sports remains high. Coverage of NIU football in the Sun-Times has been abysmal.

(04-23-2009 10:08 AM)Dog Fan Wrote:  I wonder what effect these layoffs - as well as those by the Sun-Times - will have on the already weak coverage of NIU football? (There is no coverage of basketball.) I would assume that as the newspapers get leaner and leaner, the college sports coverage will be reduced to the bare essentials: Notre Dame, and maybe a little on Illinois and Northwestern. I have noticed that coverage of college football has diminished a little in the Sun-Times over the past couple years, while coverage of high school sports remains high. Coverage of NIU football in the Sun-Times has been abysmal.

They should grab Sahly and us him as a sub-contractor. Since the Daily Cronicle does not go into the city, it might not be an issue.

Good idea Klake.

It seems like a win / win to me for everyone involved. Sahly get's his name out there a little bit more (a guy I've been very happy with since he arrived at the Chronicle). Suntimes gets quality material at a discount. Daily Chronicle probably gets a mention somewhere next to Sahly's name, which can't hurt.

I don't see a reason not to do it, considering Sahly is already doing the work anyways. Suntimes is going to need some cheap filler to take up space, seems like a solid match to me. Not to mention, in a recession, NIU sports might be more attractive to a family on a tight budget, could be a good time for the paper to focus a bit more on cheaper options for families.

I of course don't know the first thing about the newspaper industry, or what the rules are on writing for papers in the same area, even if I doubt they are really competitors.

Edit: Tribune, not Sun-Times... although the Times isn't doing much better.

I would imagine that Tribune coverage of college sports would be reduced to ND and some generic Big 10 coverage. Probably handled by like 2 people. The rest will be AP content.

Dumping Sakamoto and Isaacson is pure self destructiveness.

You can't do more with less. You can only do less with less.

I think we all need to face it that most daily newspapers will be On-line only by 2015. You'll read them on your cell phone. One benefit is they won't use all that paper and maybe save a forest or two.

(04-23-2009 01:00 PM)niuco90 Wrote:  I think we all need to face it that most daily newspapers will be On-line only by 2015. You'll read them on your cell phone. One benefit is they won't use all that paper and maybe save a forest or two.

I hope it will never come to that. There is something sacred about opening that fat Sunday paper and spending a casual morning reading it while sipping on a cup of coffee.

Besides, if papers go on-line, how will I read them while sitting on the toilet? Also, what will they use in outhouses? See how important newspapers are?!

(04-23-2009 01:25 PM)Dog Fan Wrote:  

(04-23-2009 01:00 PM)niuco90 Wrote:  I think we all need to face it that most daily newspapers will be On-line only by 2015. You'll read them on your cell phone. One benefit is they won't use all that paper and maybe save a forest or two.

I hope it will never come to that. There is something sacred about opening that fat Sunday paper and spending a casual morning reading it while sipping on a cup of coffee.

Besides, if papers go on-line, how will I read them while sitting on the toilet? Also, what will they use in outhouses? See how important newspapers are?!

Well I guess you could take a laptop into a restroom with ya lol. But no it is kinda scary when you think about it. I know the Rocky Mountain New is no longer in print now. I hear about this all the time with journalism being my minor.

After dog fan is done on his thrown, I don't think I would want to use his laptop

(04-23-2009 02:37 PM)klake87 Wrote:  After dog fan is done on his thrown, I don't think I would want to use his laptop

You may have a point there. My hard drive is completely messed up. I am forced to use a floppy, and we all know how far that will get you.

Print or online- the medium doesn't matter moving forward. What matters is finding a business model that supports the reporting. (repeated endlessly in stories about the situation)

Trouble is, reporting is getting killed while that question gets resolved. Print is the last place left where reporting exists on even a semi-reliable basis.

Losing John Mullins can be a bad thing for NIU. He provided great coverage for a paper that doesn't care too much about NIU

I think Athletics should use a few of the dollars they will be getting from the away big games to set up a little advertising campaign in the Chicago papers (what's left of them). We can assume that coverage of our games will be minimal to non-existent. Thus, repeated ads will inform the reading public that we are still alive in DeKalb, only 60 miles from Chicago, play 1-A college football, and provide viable, inexpensive family entertainment. In today's economy, that may be a good thing to promote.

(04-24-2009 07:15 AM)Dog Fan Wrote:  I think Athletics should use a few of the dollars they will be getting from the away big games to set up a little advertising campaign in the Chicago papers (what's left of them). We can assume that coverage of our games will be minimal to non-existent. Thus, repeated ads will inform the reading public that we are still alive in DeKalb, only 60 miles from Chicago, play 1-A college football, and provide viable, inexpensive family entertainment. In today's economy, that may be a good thing to promote.

We could raffle off as a prize the seats next to Dog Fan. Surely this would increase the interest in NIU Athletics!!!!

(04-24-2009 07:25 AM)klake87 Wrote:  

(04-24-2009 07:15 AM)Dog Fan Wrote:  I think Athletics should use a few of the dollars they will be getting from the away big games to set up a little advertising campaign in the Chicago papers (what's left of them). We can assume that coverage of our games will be minimal to non-existent. Thus, repeated ads will inform the reading public that we are still alive in DeKalb, only 60 miles from Chicago, play 1-A college football, and provide viable, inexpensive family entertainment. In today's economy, that may be a good thing to promote.

We could raffle off as a prize the seats next to Dog Fan. Surely this would increase the interest in NIU Athletics!!!!

This would be true. However, the seats next to me are already taken by my entourage of the clean-up crew from the Paperback Grotto, two waitresses from Molly's, representatives from the NIU Gay/Lesbian Club, a model from Thongs R Us, a rubber suit salesman, a guy that fills condom vending machines, and an 80-year-old grandmother with a vibrating cane. However, the space on my lap is currently available for the right price.

(04-24-2009 08:30 AM)Dog Fan Wrote:  

(04-24-2009 07:25 AM)klake87 Wrote:  

(04-24-2009 07:15 AM)Dog Fan Wrote:  I think Athletics should use a few of the dollars they will be getting from the away big games to set up a little advertising campaign in the Chicago papers (what's left of them). We can assume that coverage of our games will be minimal to non-existent. Thus, repeated ads will inform the reading public that we are still alive in DeKalb, only 60 miles from Chicago, play 1-A college football, and provide viable, inexpensive family entertainment. In today's economy, that may be a good thing to promote.

We could raffle off as a prize the seats next to Dog Fan. Surely this would increase the interest in NIU Athletics!!!!

This would be true. However, the seats next to me are already taken by my entourage of the clean-up crew from the Paperback Grotto, two waitresses from Molly's, representatives from the NIU Gay/Lesbian Club, a model from Thongs R Us, a rubber suit salesman, a guy that fills condom vending machines, and an 80-year-old grandmother with a vibrating cane. However, the space on my lap is currently available for the right price.

Then you know me. I fill condom vending machines.

Part of the problem for the big 2 papers that's rarely mentioned; in addition to online news sources cutting into their biz model, the suburban focused papers (Daily Herald, Daily Southtown, Pioneer Press) are grabbing a larger share of their target markets away from the big 2. Daily Herald and Daily Southtown should pool their resources to sign Sakamoto. Getting him a column in both papers (provided one of them can't afford him seperatly) would provide a large boost in circulation for either or both papers. His visibility on CLTV and Comcast would be an additional plus for any paper that signs him.

Southtown and Pioneer Press papers are owned by the Sun-Times News Group. STNG recently eliminated some of the Pioneer Press weeklies. Bad scene there.

I hope the Herald picks up Sakamoto- but his TV appearances are probably a thing of the past. CLTV is an arm of the WGN/Tribune conglomerate and how much of his CSN work was on Chicago Tribune Live? (and there's a show that misses Dan Jiggets of all people). Of course, who knows what kind of non-compete there might be on him that might even keep him away from the Herald or Sun-Times.

Would a Sakamoto lead weekly CSN High School Sports show work? I think so. But we don't know the nature of CSN's contract with the Tribune Co if he continues to do print work.