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Topic: Arkley, OT
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brucecuth
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Posted: 4/7/2020 4:09 PM
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Jason Arkley tweeted this afternoon that he's been laid off at the Messenger. From what he said in his tweet, it does not sound like he'll back anytime soon. I have no clue what the paper plans for Ohio Bobcat sports coverage. Then again, who knows when there'll be sports to cover?
Last Edited: 4/7/2020 4:19:46 PM by brucecuth
yamaha45701
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Posted: 4/7/2020 6:10 PM
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Plain Dealer just gutted their newsroom. Now the non-union digital site can only cover Cuyahoga County. For the messenger to cut Mr. Arkley means that the Messenger is on its last legs because half of the paper was/is sports coverage. Who will go after stories now, the Athens Middle School paper?
Mike Coleman
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Posted: 4/7/2020 6:28 PM
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yamaha45701 wrote:expand_more
Plain Dealer just gutted their newsroom. Now the non-union digital site can only cover Cuyahoga County. For the messenger to cut Mr. Arkley means that the Messenger is on its last legs because half of the paper was/is sports coverage. Who will go after stories now, the Athens Middle School paper?
First off, he does a great job, and this is sad news. He did imply that, unlike the situation in Cleveland, that this is a temporary thing. I mean, there are no sports to cover.
Hopefully once sports ramp back up, they will bring him back on board.
SBH
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Posted: 4/7/2020 7:22 PM
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yamaha45701 wrote:expand_more
Plain Dealer just gutted their newsroom. Now the non-union digital site can only cover Cuyahoga County. For the messenger to cut Mr. Arkley means that the Messenger is on its last legs because half of the paper was/is sports coverage. Who will go after stories now, the Athens Middle School paper?
You mischaracterize the debacle in CLE: The PD news staff - all 14 of them - are no longer permitted to cover any news specific to Cuyahoga or Summit counties or the state at large. They are relegated to outlying counties and second- and third-tier stories. Point of this is to get them to quit, effectively eliminating the Guild. Criminal...and the announcement unfortunately was made and abetted by an OU J-school grad.
Last Edited: 4/7/2020 7:23:03 PM by SBH
UpSan Bobcat
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Posted: 4/7/2020 7:32 PM
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My newspaper laid off a sports writer last week, with the owners saying they are hopeful he'd be able to come back when high school sports start again, which probably won't be before August. As others have noted, you try to be as creative as you want to come up with sports stories, but there just isn't that much for a sports writer to write about probably for several months. With the economy tanking, even fewer ads are being bought, and it was the sports department was the natural place to trim from right now. It sucks and I sure hope it's temporary for Arkley, at my paper and for many papers around the country but I'm afraid in many cases it will turn into something permanent.
Jeff McKinney
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Posted: 4/7/2020 7:46 PM
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Mike Coleman wrote:expand_more
Plain Dealer just gutted their newsroom. Now the non-union digital site can only cover Cuyahoga County. For the messenger to cut Mr. Arkley means that the Messenger is on its last legs because half of the paper was/is sports coverage. Who will go after stories now, the Athens Middle School paper?
First off, he does a great job, and this is sad news. He did imply that, unlike the situation in Cleveland, that this is a temporary thing. I mean, there are no sports to cover.
Hopefully once sports ramp back up, they will bring him back on board.
Agree.
Alan Swank
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Posted: 4/7/2020 8:58 PM
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Why didn't they just reassign him to do news. Lord knows that paper could use some.
UpSan Bobcat
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Posted: 4/8/2020 7:30 AM
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Alan Swank wrote:expand_more
Why didn't they just reassign him to do news. Lord knows that paper could use some.
Money. No one is buying ads right now.
yamaha45701
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Posted: 4/8/2020 10:55 AM
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Sorry if I did not have the facts quite right. I had read that there were major things going on with the plain dealer. Just wanted to alert folks about a developing situation in Cleveland.
SBH
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Posted: 4/8/2020 11:42 AM
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Just an ugly, ugly situation in CLE. The owners of the PD have never been strong stewards of quality journalism.
Bobcat61
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Posted: 4/8/2020 1:47 PM
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Suggestion
Do not know the street address of the Messanger - do know where the offices are- but if all or most if us write a letter asking why he is gone and when he is expected back- just might help
If you read via a subscription- let them know- same with reading on line
The OSU writer for the Cleve PD has a very low price “blog” covering FB and some BB for “the” - very good- if anyone is a good friend of Arkley tell him this. I am sure he could write one on the Bobcats and make $$$$
Think Green, Think Bobcat Green!
JSF
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Posted: 4/8/2020 11:04 PM
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Those of you who didn't like his work have gotten their wish.
BillyTheCat
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Posted: 4/9/2020 6:08 PM
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JSF wrote:expand_more
Those of you who didn't like his work have gotten their wish.
I bet they are really happy next year when coaches have to call in their own stories
Alan Swank
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Posted: 4/9/2020 10:47 PM
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BillyTheCat wrote:expand_more
Those of you who didn't like his work have gotten their wish.
I bet they are really happy next year when coaches have to call in their own stories
That's really funny for those of us who've coached on the high school level and called in scores for years. Can you imagine a D 1 program having to call in scores to the local paper because its inhouse reporter got let go.
UpSan Bobcat
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Posted: 4/10/2020 9:10 AM
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Alan Swank wrote:expand_more
Those of you who didn't like his work have gotten their wish.
I bet they are really happy next year when coaches have to call in their own stories
That's really funny for those of us who've coached on the high school level and called in scores for years. Can you imagine a D 1 program having to call in scores to the local paper because its inhouse reporter got let go.
If they don't bring Arkley back when sports resume, they'll probably go with a part-time person or stringer to cover home games and maybe an occasional important road game. There are plenty of writers they could hire in the Athens area. I think that's essentially what they did for a while before Arkley. But certainly someone sticking to the beat for years at a time and being there for virtually every game provides much better coverage. Hopefully they can find it in their budget for that when this passes.
cbus cat fan
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Posted: 4/10/2020 10:32 AM
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I do believe sports will be back up and running in the fall, but the print part of sports journalism will have taken a serious hit. What's been trending for years was only made worse by the pandemic. This is part of the reason for the rise in local TV coverage of high school sports. The whole Football Friday night thing coupled with local radio stations covering high school football land basketball has been on the increase to compensate for what's been happening in the print media. Even MAC football and basketball announcers sound far more professional and polished from what I can remember when I was an undergrad in the 80s. There were certainly some characters back in the day, but I am guessing they were making peanuts as well. Sadly, there were some great local MAC sportswriters back in the day, but they have disappeared in the mists of sports history.
The Optimist
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Posted: 4/10/2020 4:03 PM
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Arkley should try to make a go of it on his own. I've never subscribed to the messenger but I would subscribe in the blink of an eye if he started his own site.
Sam bobcat
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Posted: 4/10/2020 8:47 PM
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The Optimist wrote:expand_more
Arkley should try to make a go of it on his own. I've never subscribed to the messenger but I would subscribe in the blink of an eye if he started his own site.
+1
El Gato Roberto
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Posted: 4/10/2020 9:35 PM
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The Optimist wrote:expand_more
Arkley should try to make a go of it on his own. I've never subscribed to the messenger but I would subscribe in the blink of an eye if he started his own site.
hope he reads this - I'd subscribe
Cbus Convo
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Posted: 4/12/2020 12:13 PM
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El Gato Roberto wrote:expand_more
Arkley should try to make a go of it on his own. I've never subscribed to the messenger but I would subscribe in the blink of an eye if he started his own site.
hope he reads this - I'd subscribe
+1
Brian Smith (No, not that one)
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Posted: 4/13/2020 2:22 AM
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Travel budget. Insurance. No way on earth he could make it on a solo subscription service.

Our official Ohio athletics Youtube videos get literally dozens of views. If Ohio didn’t play a game this fall, outside of this board no one would blink.The market is not there.

Guys in markets like Pittsburgh and Boston couldn’t make a go of it on their own websites. ESPN...DISNEY...dropped team beat writers. The Athletic is on borrowed VC money time.

We’re headed to a world where sports writing is a hobby you do on the side from your couch.

It’s okay. The world will survive if it doesn’t get coachspeak pablum after every game. The bubble was gonna burst. It just happened in a weird way.
Last Edited: 4/13/2020 2:28:49 AM by Brian Smith (No, not that one)
OU_Country
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Posted: 4/13/2020 10:40 AM
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. wrote:expand_more
Travel budget. Insurance. No way on earth he could make it on a solo subscription service.

Our official Ohio athletics Youtube videos get literally dozens of views. If Ohio didn’t play a game this fall, outside of this board no one would blink.The market is not there.

Guys in markets like Pittsburgh and Boston couldn’t make a go of it on their own websites. ESPN...DISNEY...dropped team beat writers. The Athletic is on borrowed VC money time.

We’re headed to a world where sports writing is a hobby you do on the side from your couch.

It’s okay. The world will survive if it doesn’t get coachspeak pablum after every game. The bubble was gonna burst. It just happened in a weird way.
I hope that doesn't happen with The Athletic. It's probably the best thing I spend money on in terms of bang for my buck. Even if they increased the rate a little, it still would be.
ytownbobcat
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Posted: 4/13/2020 10:44 AM
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I thought that Arkley's analysis was good and he could write a game article that always offered unique insight.
OUcats82
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Posted: 4/13/2020 1:19 PM
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. wrote:expand_more
Travel budget. Insurance. No way on earth he could make it on a solo subscription service.

Our official Ohio athletics Youtube videos get literally dozens of views. If Ohio didn’t play a game this fall, outside of this board no one would blink.The market is not there.

Guys in markets like Pittsburgh and Boston couldn’t make a go of it on their own websites. ESPN...DISNEY...dropped team beat writers. The Athletic is on borrowed VC money time.

We’re headed to a world where sports writing is a hobby you do on the side from your couch.

It’s okay. The world will survive if it doesn’t get coachspeak pablum after every game. The bubble was gonna burst. It just happened in a weird way.
I think SI will go by the wayside in the not so distant future, too.

Don't have a dog in the fight and don't know the whole history but just bits and pieces I've read sounds like things here might get worse before better between the writers and Maven. I'm sure there is no shortage of posters on here who can speak to this better than I can.

https://www.geekwire.com/2020/internal-memo-sports-illust... /
ShoreCat
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Posted: 4/13/2020 3:32 PM
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I'll miss Arkley and I feel bad for him, and anybody else who's been hurt lately. But the cuts in the journalism business have me more concerned about the lack of staff doing real investigative journalism on topics far more important than a Bobcat football game.

I'm no Constitutional scholar but I do remember something about the right of a free press, not the right of a consistent beat reporter for college football.
Last Edited: 4/13/2020 3:33:44 PM by ShoreCat
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