Jul 22nd, 2009 | 4:44 pm |
via No news is bad news.
SportsBusiness Journal recently surveyed editors from 50 North American daily newspapers 46 U.S., four Canada that regularly covered at least one team in the NFL, NBA, NHL or Major League Baseball both at home and on the road. The pool included 15 of the nation’s 25 largest daily papers and 30 of the largest 50.
Those 50 departments had cut the equivalent of 303 full-time jobs through an 18-month span that ended in May, reducing staff sizes by about 20 percent through a combination of buyouts and layoffs.
Not surprisingly, sports sections are smaller. Space was down about 20 percent from the start of last year, with sections sliced by an average of six pages per week, or almost a page a day. For many, that continues a steady decline that began about five years ago.
All but two papers reported reductions in travel.
Those who have gone along merrily assuming that shrinking sections would be balanced by an expanding menu on the Web should be reminded that this isn’t simply a reduction of space. It’s also a purge of the labor force, with some of the more experienced, better paid writers and editors counted among the casualties.
