Posted by chicagomedia.org on March 25, 2009 at 16:24:11:
Greg Couch becomes latest Sun-Times sports columnist to join AOL
Sports columnist Greg Couch is leaving the Chicago Sun-Times after a dozen years to cover golf, tennis and college football and basketball for AOL's FanHouse.com site.
AOL Sports earlier signed former Sun-Times sports columnist Jay Mariotti, who resigned last summer after returning from the Beijing Olympics with complaints about the paper's Internet efforts. Couch was the other half of the Sun-Times contingent in China to cover the Games.
Although Couch tendered his resignation Tuesday, Sun-Times Sports Editor Stu Courtney said Wednesday he did not know when Couch's last day at the paper would be. Couch said the Sun-Times was still planning to send him to cover the NCAA men's basketball regional in Indianapolis later this week, leaving his AOL start date up in the air.
"I just wanted to start playing offense," Couch said. "All newspapers, not just the Sun-Times, you're playing defense, you're hanging on for dear life. AOL seems to have found their niche, and they're thinking big. ... I just wanted to go with someone who was trying to grow rather than just trying to hang on."
An award-winning journalist who was just announced as a finalist for the Chicago Headline Club's 2008 Lisagor Award for best sports commentary, Couch said the turning point for him at the Sun-Times came last summer when he came to fear he might be among those laid off at that time.
Couch said he was talking with AOL as far back Thanksgiving -- more than a month before Mariotti's FanHouse.com debut -- although initially he was looking only into the possibility of picking up some freelance work.
"Jay and I were talking to them at the same time, but it's funny -- he didn't know I was talking to them and I didn't know he was talking to them," said Couch, a father of two whose wife teaches part-time.
Couch, 45, previously previously worked for the Akron (Ohio) Beacon-Journal, Wichita (Kan.) Eagle and Savannah (Ga.) News-Press. As a youth, Couch lived in Western Springs and delivered the Chicago Daily News and Chicago Today.
"I hope to God the Sun-Times makes it," Couch said. "They're struggling like crazy, but it's not hopeless. All these newspapers are struggling. AOL might struggle, too. Who knows? They've struggled on and off for a while. But they're hiring a big staff. They're scouring the country to find the right people. It's just a different attitude right now."
(Chicago Tribune)