Clearing up the DMN / Startlegram Nexus
by mjh on Feb 3, 2009 9:09 AM CST
38 comments
I just caught Adam's eulogy to the DMN's Rangers coverage and thought maybe I could shed some light on the situation based on what I've been told.
The DMN will no longer have beat writers (Evan & Richard). The DMN will print the same daily beat stories & notes by Jeff Wilson and Anthony Andro that appear in the Startlegram.
The DMN will maintain their Rangers blog, but Evan will not be a part of it because he was transferred to the Cowboys beat (cuz lord knows, you just can't have too many Cowboys beat writers in the spring).
Richard Durrett has been reassigned as an all-purpose blogger, joining Tim MacMahon in that capacity. Both Richard and Tim will contribute to all DMN Sports Blogs. I have been asked to stay on with the DMN Rangers Blog. I have been told that I am free to continue to do whatever I think is best, whether it's doing game stories from Frisco, interviews, Q&A's, roundtables, etc. Jeff WIlson and Anthony Andro will also contribute to the DMN Rangers blog.
The DMN general sports columnists -- JJT, Tim Cowlishaw and Kevin Sherrington -- will continue to provide original Rangers-related exclusive content for the DMN as they see fit. The Startlegram's columnists -- Gil, Reevo, Galloway & Galloway-Lite -- will continue to provide Rangers-related exclusive content to the Startlegram as they see fit.
I am far from the official source on this -- and I'm sure this could all change again next week -- but it seems that y'all haven't been told much about what is going to happen and I thought I'd try to clear it up a bit based on what I've been told.
Like you, I'm extremely disappointed not only in this whole development, but the way it was communicated to fans and readers such as yourselves.
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Well..
I am glad that you’ll continue to have a prominent outlet.
by jthig32 on Feb 3, 2009 9:13 AM CST reply actions 0 recs
MJH going all BGL on DMN
Thanks for the info, dude.
Go Strangers.
by hightowersmith on Feb 3, 2009 9:18 AM CST reply actions 0 recs
I'm quite sure that Evan Grant will land on his feet
but assigning a talented baseball writer to the Cowboys beat is idiotic. He was a good source of info for us fanatical fans and he will be missed. Wouldn’t surprise me to see him catch on with a national baseball media outlet.
"drawing walks is an overrated trait in my eyes."
"i do believe we could have 4 30 start pitchers in the rotation."
-- both these genius remarks brought to you by our resident guru, bigsteve
by tricer on Feb 3, 2009 9:25 AM CST reply actions 0 recs
i agree here
or even another local outlet
does anyone have ANY contacts the MLB network?
Scout: He was a first-round pick right? Got a huge bonus?
KG: Oh yeah.
Scout: Well, he spent a lot of it on milkshakes.
by knockoutking on Feb 3, 2009 10:01 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs
does anyone have ANY contacts the MLB network?
The 40 Trumps All!!!
I hate Michael Young.
"There are no weak opinions with the dirkatron, it’s all scream-across-the-parking-lot echelon." -hightowersmith
by thedirkatron on Feb 3, 2009 12:27 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs
Yesterday
I sat down to eat lunch with the DMN as I always do. For probably the first time ever in all my years of doing that, I didnt read a single word of the sports page. I started turning through it and didnt find a single article that I was interested in reading.
Granted yesterday’s sports section was super bowl heavy and while I watched some I really didnt care to read the DMN analysis, but still, I have found myself finding less and less to peruse in the sports every day at lunch. A once great sports section is disappearing before our eyes
by BEW on Feb 3, 2009 9:27 AM CST reply actions 0 recs
The DMN sports
section is all I usually read at lunch. However I have thought about getting the USA Today’s sports weekly that they publish instead.
Elvis Andrus - 2009 AL Rookie of the Year
by RangerMad on Feb 3, 2009 9:30 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs
One of the best things about the "old DMN"
were their versions of the various standings & box scores.
What they’re doing now is total give up and this version of their sports page is not that far from what they were doing in 1974.
Give us opinion pieces from columists, daily articles on the goings on of the major professional teams, blogs from the various sources AND detailed box scores & standings or please go curl up in a ball and die.
"Dying ain't hard. It's living that's hard."
by Josey Wales on Feb 3, 2009 9:47 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs
in defense of all local sports writing
it has to be difficult to write about our current stable of teams.
The Mavericks are probably the saddest story because they were so close to winning a championship and are now simply a marginal second rung team in the West, and will only continue to fall back as their star players continue to age with no young talent coming up behind them. It makes their ’06 collapse even more tragic (NFL Cardinals fans should note that parallel).
The Stars have been unable to make their momentum from last season carry over and they too are stuck in the second rung, much like the Mavericks.
The Cowboys were an embarrassment to the entire city this year and frankly there isn’t much to write about these days that isn’t just slinging more mud on their faces. No coaching staff shakeup, key draft picks traded for Roy Williams, watching a Cardinals team that looked absolutely pedestrian all year and with a coaching staff littered with former Cowboys coaches make it to the Super Bowl, and now Jessica Simpson has gained weight and the president is joking about it. The DMN was correct to slap that story above the crease yesterday about the Steelers taking over the "America’s Team" mantle. Even though America may truly be more like the Cowboys, we surely idealize ourselves to be more like the Steelers.
All this makes it even more frustrating that the Rangers have been unable to make a single impact move this offseason. In a city starving for positive sports news, arm injuries and NRIs won’t cut it.
by clark on Feb 3, 2009 9:55 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs
It would be very, very easy to write about the sports teams in DFW.
You’re taking a macro view of all the teams (and make good points) but the very existence of those teams guarantees some kind of story every single day for a reporter or columnist who is not afraid to get off his ass.
This area is bonkers about sports and you have professional teams to write about not to mention everything having to do with colleges and high school. Writing about sports in this area would be a cakewalk.
It does boggle my mind on how the DMN has largely given Tom Hicks a free pass to screw this baseball team as badly as he has and he does not have to read a thing about it in the paper. This crap would not fly in NY, Boston, Chi or Philly.
"Dying ain't hard. It's living that's hard."
by Josey Wales on Feb 3, 2009 10:09 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs
the 80's were hardly better
"To be ignorant of one’s ignorance is the malady of the ignorant."
by ab03 on Feb 3, 2009 10:11 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs
The NBA would disagree
"My mother always taught me that if the only thing you have to say is,
‘(Expletive) Dave Samson,’ then don’t say anything at all.
So I’m not going to say anything at all.
Is my mother the greatest or what?"
- Mariners GM Bill Bavasi, after signing Ichiro to a $90 million contract
by tyd3311 on Feb 3, 2009 10:13 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs
The DMN
was really good from the late 70’s until the late 90’s…among the very best in the country. And then this internet thingy happened.
I think the editor of Sports Day was Dave Smith and he did a great job.
"Dying ain't hard. It's living that's hard."
by Josey Wales on Feb 3, 2009 10:17 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs
What a bunch of crap
The Cowboys are better than the Steelers, right now.
If we played them 10 times on a neutral field, we’d win 8. We outplayed them on there homefield this season.
This Cowboys are a disaster baloney has got to stop.
by Sharky on Feb 4, 2009 4:48 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs
And Steelers Americas team?
Yeah, sure, lets see how many times they’re on national TV next season versus the Cowboys.
The Steelers are just another good team in the NFL, that will be forgotten on a national scale as soon as they dont win the SB. the Cowboys are on another level of popularity. Of course it helps that the Cowboys are consistently good.
But I’m not surprised the DMN came out with some lies about Pitt being Americas team..it was JJT wasnt it, he should be fired.
by Sharky on Feb 4, 2009 4:51 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs
The Cowboys have been coughing it up
come money time for years. They got a quarterback who would rather be in Mexico with his porker Girlfriend than working on holding onto the ball.
When it counts, the Steelers got it done, and this Cowboy team finds a way to spit the bit.
Steelers are winners, and America likes winners.
Get off my lawn.
by DJCahill on Feb 4, 2009 5:22 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs
It's just so irritating
….because Grant is prohibited from even blogging about the Rangers yet the JJTs and Galloways of the world are still columnists. Makes me sick.
by FuturePants on Feb 3, 2009 9:44 AM CST reply actions 0 recs
exactly
Why on earth do we need to read blogging from writers who know much less about baseball and the Rangers than Grant does.
G G G E-flat_______ F F F D__________....
by t ball on Feb 3, 2009 10:17 AM CST up reply actions 1 recs
Why on earth do we need to read blogging from writers who know much less about baseball and the Rangers than Grant does.
+1
Jay Zygmunt, now that you have fired yourself, please have yourself hired by Seattle. Thanks.
by 3k on Feb 5, 2009 7:32 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs
Are you talking
about Evan Grant, or Grant Schiller. Your point works equally well with either name.
Get off my lawn.
by DJCahill on Feb 5, 2009 8:35 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs
Good point
Grant Schiller is much more informed about the Rangers than any of the columnists.
G G G E-flat_______ F F F D__________....
by t ball on Feb 5, 2009 11:05 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs
Yep
"There's a bailout coming but it's not for you." -- Neil Young
by Lucas on Feb 3, 2009 9:48 AM CST reply actions 0 recs
Is that sig from one of Neil’s new “songs”?
Can’t place it, but I know money and green cars are huge on the next record.
Go Strangers.
by hightowersmith on Feb 3, 2009 9:57 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs
Sad
but the thing is that Jeff Wilson and Anthony Andro are really good beat guys too, in my opinion, especially Wilson. Don’t know if he is on LSB but hopefully he will try and do a good job of connecting with those of us who do obsess over the Rangers like EG did.
"We live, we die, and the wheels on the bus go round and round." - Tony Romo
by kentbenfer on Feb 3, 2009 9:49 AM CST reply actions 0 recs
This whole thing sucks
and Mike is right, it has been communicated poorly and the fans were treated like we had no stake in the outcome. I don’t have a big problem with the FWST beat writers, I guess they’re competent. But keeping the columnists and ditching the beat writers just flies in the face of logic, or at least seems to be completely ignoring any possible advantage newspaper sports coverage has over blogging. We do NOT need more opinion writers who are barely informed. We have twice as many columnists as we need, and half as many beat writers. Ass backwards.
Mike, if I were you I’d go back to my own blog, just for the sake of predictability and stability. You’ll always have readers wherever you are.
G G G E-flat_______ F F F D__________....
by t ball on Feb 3, 2009 10:22 AM CST reply actions 0 recs
I just don't get it
Why can’t Grant continue blogging if he wants to. Are they actually telling him he no longer can write on the Rangers blog?
By 2028, Mark Teixeira will be in the HOF.
-The Outlaw
by Gdawg on Feb 3, 2009 10:23 AM CST reply actions 0 recs
on the bright side
at least we will still get those AWESOME JJT Rangers columns. I was really afraid that we weren’t going to be blessed with those strokes of genius anymore.
by blueballlefty on Feb 3, 2009 11:29 AM CST reply actions 0 recs
It's Funny how the DMN - Star-Telegram camouflage the changes
MLB Rumers will have a link to “the Dallas Morning News,” and guess what, it’s a link really to the Star-Telegram, but it doesn’t say what paper it is in the article linked to. That’s kind of unethical really. The uninformed Dallas reader might not even notice the change.
by SanDiegoKev on Feb 3, 2009 11:36 AM CST reply actions 0 recs
Good to see we'll still receive some good info from some good people
and I think this whole situation will change dramatically in the next 6 months to a year. The kindling’s been placed beneath the logs…we just need some dry weather and a match.
As far as the quality of the Sports Page, I don’t know if they’re trying to drive more traffic to the internet and print less pages, pay less staff members, to save money, but it’s really starting to piss me off. I just cancelled the paper. For good. I was considering going weekend only, but I just can’t do it. They don’t even post the freakin’ standings for NHL, NBA, etc. in a prominent position anymore. I’m sure it’s there, but I can’t find it. Instead, we have the freakin’ AUTO section taking up 2 or more pages of the Sports section now.
"Hang-Dai, Wu...Hang-Fu$&ing-Dai"
by Walter Sobchak on Feb 3, 2009 11:37 AM CST reply actions 0 recs
So basically...
They’ve DFA’d the best reporter, pushed the other DMN beat guys into utility roles, and put all the worst columnists from both papers in the starting lineup.
Sigh…
Well, keep up the good work Mike – we still need somebody of intelligence over at the DMN.
That Gold Glove for Young was the worst thing that could have happened to Texas - now the guy really believes he's good at short. - Keith Law
by lonestarJon on Feb 3, 2009 3:53 PM CST reply actions 0 recs
Is Todd Archer still on the Cowboys beat?
Really like his writing
by texasraider on Feb 3, 2009 9:52 PM CST reply actions 0 recs
is the Startle-gram misspelling
intentional or is it something the spell correct in laying on us?
"Never go with a hippie to a second location."
by jcAustin on Feb 5, 2009 3:20 PM CST reply actions 0 recs
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