by Paul Teetor
Breaking news: the Los Angeles Times has entered into a murder-suicide pact with its sports section readers.
The Times killed off most of its sports coverage this week as part of its ongoing, slow-motion suicide that started more than two decades ago when the Chandler family sold out to the Chicago Tribune for $6.4 billion.
The Chandlers took the money and ran laughing all the way to the bank, while leaving the Times’ faithful readers to deal with the ugly, ever-worsening aftermath of the sale: endless budget cuts, painful staff layoffs, new owners every few years, and steadily declining circulation to less than half of what it used to be.
All that journalistic carnage was supposed to end when biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong bought the Times (along with the San Diego Union-Tribune) five years ago for $500 million, and his purchase did stop the bleeding for a while. He was hailed as a white knight who arrived just in the nick of time. A classic Hollywood feel-good story.
But now the designated savior can’t — or won’t — absorb any more annual eight-figure losses and has ordered a 13 percent across-the-board staff reduction, which translates to the loss of 74 editorial jobs. Meanwhile, he is trying to unload the paper to LA media mogul Roger Penske.
Naturally, the sports section is the first to feel the axe – and the early results are devastating.
Thank God the late, great Times sports columnist Jim Murray is not around to witness the latest degradation of his beloved Times sports department. All Ball can only imagine the kind of snappy putdown he would produce to cut through all the BS the Times editors are shoveling out to sugarcoat what is really happening.
Murray was sui generis and impossible to imitate, but we’ll give it the old college try anyway.
Of course, the Times sports editor, Iliana Limon Romero, couched the shocking changes in anodyne language.
But anyone with a pulse and a working brain could read between the lines: LA sports fans will have to look elsewhere for the kind of traditional, day-to-day, detail-oriented, team-by-team sports coverage that they have enjoyed for seemingly forever, albeit in greatly reduced form in recent years.
Here’s what Romero said in last Sunday’s Times while breaking the bad news to the readers — and here’s what it actually means.
“Dear readers: Today we are introducing a new era for the Los Angeles Times sports section.”
Translation: The party’s over for you suckers still paying big bucks for a daily hard copy subscription.
“The printed sports section will take on the look and feel of a daily sports magazine, with a different design showcasing our award-winning reporting and photography. Our new layout highlights our best, most ambitious sports journalism – distinctive work you cannot find anywhere else.”
Translation: We’re going to fill our few remaining pages with blown-up photos that take up a page or two or three, throw in a couple of feature stories to hide the empty spaces, and try to convince you that you’ve upgraded from what you want – a daily newspaper with a traditional sports section – to some kind of fancy-schmancy sports magazine that you don’t really want or need.
“We are making this change to adapt to how readers follow news and sporting events each day while managing rising production costs.”
Translation: We have to slash the cost of producing a newspaper yet again, and this is what our high-priced consultants are telling us to do. It’s a new approach for a new age. Get with the program, morons.
“You no longer will see box scores, standings and traditional game stories, but those will be replaced by more innovative reporting, in-depth profiles, unique examinations of the way teams operate, investigations, our distinct columnist’s voices, elite photography and more.”
Translation: We’ve still got Bill Plaschke telling the Dodgers, Lakers, Clippers and Rams what to do. As for the rest of the filler we’ve got lined up for you: blah, blah, blah and oh, yeah, lots of big color photos.
“We remain heavily invested in covering sports spanning Southern California and beyond, with the journalists you know well dedicated to chronicling your favorite teams and athletes while also introducing you to newcomers who soon will make their mark.”
Translation: Huh? Do you mean new athletes or new journalists who will soon make their mark? Who knows? Who cares?
“You can still find scores, breaking news, instant analysis, commentary and more as games and tournaments are unfolding at latimes.com/sports and via our L. A. Times app. And please sign up for our sports report newsletter at latimes.com/newsletters to get the latest developments delivered to your email inbox early each morning.”
Translation: We’ve been trying to get you dinosaurs to go online for more than a decade now, yet you’ve continued to pay higher and higher prices for a thinner and thinner print edition. Maybe this will finally force you online.
“I am honored to continue highlighting the incredible talent on the L.A. Times sports staff and look forward to helping guide readers to all we have to offer in our print edition and online.”
Translation: This isn’t what I signed up for either, but, hey, I’m just following orders from above. I suggest you do the same.
This brave new approach produced a mighty thin gruel in the week that followed. The Sunday sports section led with a full-page color photo of the Angels two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani with the caption: “Will this be a Dodgers cap next season?” Yawn.
All Ball first predicted Ohtani will leave the Angels for the Dodgers after this season more than two years ago. Nothing has changed since then except the Times finally woke up to embrace what is likely to be the biggest sports story in LA since Shaq and Kobe both arrived here in the summer of 1996.
Monday’s cover story featured a half-page color photo of Dodgers star Mookie Betts with the caption: “Sneaky Pop is His Formula.” Again, nothing new or innovative here. Betts is a little guy with a big bat. That was his rep in Boston, his rep when the Dodgers got him, and it’s his rep now. Nothing has changed there.
Tuesday’s cover story featured a full-page photo montage of old Oakland A’s stars Dave Stewart, Vida Blue, Rickey Henderson and Reggie Jackson. The text read: “A Deep Hole in the East Bay: The Athletics’ impending departure from Oakland will be felt especially hard by the city’s Black Community.” Other than the quick hit of ‘70’s nostalgia, there was nothing new or innovative here since the A’s departure for Las Vegas has been on baseball’s radar for several years now.
Wednesday’s cover featured Ohtani for the second time in four days, with a huge color photo and the words “Star-Crossed? Ohtani won’t say whether he thinks the Angels are cursed, but the two-way phenomenon reiterates his desire to win a title as free agency approaches.”
Wow! Another master-of-the-obvious column from junior varsity columnist Dylan Hernandez, who has shown no growth since he was promoted from the Dodgers beat several years ago.
I mean, who knew that Ohtani wants to go where he can win ballgames? Only everybody, since Ohtani has been saying it for more than two years. Again, nothing new or innovative here, except that the Times is, once again, late to the Ohtani party.
Thursday’s cover featured a huge color photo of Dodgers catcher Will Smith with the headline “Unmask the next Superstar Catcher.” Smith has been on the verge of becoming a star – but nowhere close to a superstar – for the last two years. This one smacked of desperation to make up for the lack of substance in the rest of the sports section.
Friday’s cover featured three big color photos of homeless people competing in something called the Homeless World Cup, a soccer tournament held in Sacramento. While well-intentioned and certainly in tune with the Times increasingly woke bent, what that has to do with the LA sports scene is beyond All Ball.
And Saturday’s cover wrapped up the first week of new and innovative coverage with a huge color photo of three members of the U.S. Women’s World Cup soccer team with the text: “Uniting the Nation with Representation. U.S. Team hopes its World Cup roster, the most diverse it has ever been, will inspire the next generation of stars.”
This is probably the most legit of the seven covers, since the news hook is the World Cup that starts Thursday, July 20. But the woke diversity angle is pretty heavy-handed. Better to let the readers draw their own conclusions.
Reader reaction to the new approach was uniformly negative. All you had to do was look at the letters in Sunday’s sports section. To its credit, the Times printed 16 letters and all 16 slammed the new format and new approach.
But rather than quote from the Times letters, All Ball has decided to reprint the email that long-time Manhattan Beach resident Marty Friedman, a former Xerox executive who is well known as a marathoner who often wins his age group, a crafty tennis player and a leader in the canine rescue movement, sent to the Times.
Subject: New Format – I hate it!
Let me repeat myself. I hate it!
If paper costs are an issue, why use space on fluff “human interest” stories? I want concise information, which you have cut out. What are standings? Who is pitching? What are expectations (odds)? How many hits did Freeman get and is he moving up or down leaderboard? Who are local teams playing? What games/events are on TV today? Who won/lost at Wimbledon (not the 4 “names” in the story, but the other Americans, Canadians, lower ranked players, etc.)?
Now you tell me that I can read the paper and go to the website for information. That takes twice as long. And I didn’t find the things I mentioned above on your website, just the same fluff articles from the print paper.
What have you done and why do you hate your readers?
Marty Friedman
Manhattan Beach, CA
In one week, the Times has accomplished something that seemed impossible just two weeks ago: by default, the Daily Breeze now has the best sports section in the Southland. They have two competent columnists in veteran Jim Alexander and newbie Mirjam Swanson, staffers assigned to every beat – college and pro – and a prep sports guy in Damian Calhoun who has a small stable of stringers he assigns to high school games he can’t cover himself. Compared to what the Times is offering now, the verdict is clear: game over!
Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com
Follow: @paulteetor
