In an outstanding article for the L.A. Times, T. J. Simers paints a contrast between Jeff Kent, who Simers has little use for apparently, and Steve Dilbeck, the outstanding sports columnist, formerly of the Los Angeles Daily News. While this writer never knew or has much experience with players like Kent, Dilbeck's story is one the Fan can relate to.
The Fan knows what it's like to have the world turn upside down after fifteen years of hard work at the company store. Being downsized is a humbling and difficult thing. We're never really prepared for it. The Fan has been tough on sports writers over the years, but this is a frightening time for them, especially in the world of newspapers. The Fan's mom works for a newspaper in Florida that recently laid off half of its staff, most of its writers and is now being written and delivered by a previous competitor.
The glory days of newspapers are dead and if many are still in business, they are see the writing on the wall. The world of news has moved on-line on thousands of sites, blogs and RSS feeds. People who do not go on-line, watch endless hours of cable news, broadcast 24 hours a day, seven days a week. What are newspapers supposed to do?
Many have a web presence themselves, but they haven't figured out how to replace the revenue from newspaper sales to getting paid by the click. A newspaper sports writer for 30 years has little idea how this all works and how to get paid for it. A few have been favored and work for giants like ESPN.com or Yahoo Sports, but where will the rest of them go? Their employers relied on the local population to buy the papers to read their writers. Young people don't buy newspapers any more. They go on-line.
Clearly, the giants of the Web have to figure out how to save the talent that they helped put out of business. There are far too many very talented writers who will be muted if there isn't some thought into how to get them heard and pay them a living wage. As silly as it seems, all these professionals will be competing with a lot of amateurs who write for free and have a jump step on them all.
Dilbeck's story is agonizing. He is one of many in such a fate. Life is cruel at times and the old story we read as kids about the ant and the grasshopper didn't stay with us. 2009 has a lot of grasshoppers rubbing their legs nervously and wishing things were different. Just ask the grasshopper on the other side of this keyboard. Good luck to you Mr. Dilbeck. The Fan is feeling ya.
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