Posted by chicagomedia.org on April 23, 2009 at 09:26:04:
In Reply to: Chicago Tribune Cuts 53 From Newsroom posted by chicagomedia.org on April 22, 2009 at 13:28:07:
Dark day at Tribune sports
Posted by Ed Sherman
at 4/23/2009 6:11 AM CDT on Chicago Business
When I took a buyout from the Tribune last August because I felt it was time to do something else, I had no idea how bad it would get at the paper. Heck, those were glory days compared to what's happening now.
Wednesday, the sports department trimmed eight staffers as part of cuts throughout editorial. Among them were familiar bylines Tribune sports readers have seen for years.
Melissa Isaacson: She was the Bulls beat writer during a large portion of the Michael Jordan era and had served as the section's big feature reporter and occasional columnist in recent years.
John Mullin: Long-time reporter for the Bears who also did coverage of college sports.
Terry Bannon: The beat writer for Illinois sports. He also wrote a weekly preview of NFL games.
Bob Sakamoto: Long-time chronicler of high school sports dating back to Isiah Thomas' days at St. Joseph's. An institution on the beat.
Now they join the list of writers who have left the Tribune in the recent years: Mike Downey, Bill Jauss, Don Pierson, Sam Smith, Neil Milbert, Skip Myslenski, Barry Temkin, Alan Sutton, Reid Hanley, Dave Surico, Lew Friedman, Michael Hirsley and yours truly.
A handful of the positions were replaced, but by and large, they weren't. Including Wednesday's purge, the sports section lost a ton of experience and expertise on important beats.
Who's left? Beyond the beat writers for the teams, the roster has gotten thin.
Besides the writers, four fine sports editors also lost their jobs Wednesday: Bob Vanderberg, Tom Careek, Richard Rothschild and Ed Cavanaugh.
I know the paper is in dire straits. But it is disheartening to see so many fine people leave the section.
And it feels even worse when those people also are your friends.