Michael Hiestand, who started writing USA Today's sports TV column in 1990, is taking a buyout and today will be his last day -- along with around 30 other staffers who accepted the offers first made in March. In an interview with Sports Business Daily, he says he wants to stay in the business.
He told the trade site journalism is now more rooted in technology -- including posting items to the Internet quickly -- than gumshoe reporting, but he predicted that would soon change.
“Right now, we’re in a phase where we’ll look back and think that it was all about the technology, centered on how quickly you can get a URL up so that if somebody Googles a topic, your story will be one of the first ones that comes up,” Hiestand said. “I think media networks are going to have to be more aggressive about getting their own stories out in an interesting and factual way.”
Two other veteran sports journalists also are taking buyouts, Sports Business said: columnists Jon Saraceno and Mike Lopresti.
 |
| His column mug |
“Right now, we’re in a phase where we’ll look back and think that it was all about the technology, centered on how quickly you can get a URL up so that if somebody Googles a topic, your story will be one of the first ones that comes up,” Hiestand said. “I think media networks are going to have to be more aggressive about getting their own stories out in an interesting and factual way.”
Two other veteran sports journalists also are taking buyouts, Sports Business said: columnists Jon Saraceno and Mike Lopresti.
Beusse, Kramer, Callaway, Frank. NONE value experience or talent. Everyone is replaceable, usually by one of their friends.
ReplyDeleteSo, how is the paper explaining to readers why certain columnists have suddenly disappeared?
ReplyDeleteThey won't explain it. The paper's readers aren't all that important, as it's digital where it's at, supposedly. Hiestand was respected in the industry somewhat like Rudy Martzke was in the heyday years ago, but doubt that Morgan will find another person to fill that beat. Readers won't care, but the industry might. Usat was a bible of sorts for monitoring Sports TV, but today what is it known for?
DeleteAbout 15 columnists, reviewers and reporters leaving. Check in 6 months to see how many of these fact-searchers Callaway replaces, if any, compared with new repackagers, tweakers and tweeters.
ReplyDeleteHeistand, Lopresti and Saraceno will be missed. I guess the only other USAT columnist I can name now is Christine Brennan.
ReplyDeleteCraig Wilson's column today talked about the buyouts. They must not be censoring their own employees.
ReplyDeleteHis final column surprised me for that very reason.
DeleteWe can now hear our "pronounced voices" loudly and clearly............from the parking lot.
DeleteAnother failed strategy from a USAT Publisher.
Have you EVER read his dribble? I don't think an editor has ever read his column
DeleteUSAT staffers taking the buyout had to have a minimum of 15 years' service to qualify. (They also had to be at least 55 years old.)
ReplyDeleteIf only 30 are leaving today, and all qualified with only the minimum 15 years, that's a combined 450 years' experience going out the door.
9:15 nailed it perfectly. All Beusse and Morgan want to do is drive out everybody who built USA TODAY SPORTS and replace them with one of their online buddies from Yahoo or wherever who've never done a frigging thing in their careers except blog (i.e. aggregating other people's work), who don't know how to report, who don't know how to write, who don't even know how to relate to other people. Ever see these clowns in action? They don't even know how to pick up a phone and interview somebody. They just exist in an online dream world. It amazes me how these new guys just throw away brands that took decades to build. They remind me of rich kids who were born on third base and think they hit a home run. This is all coming down, quickly. The word is out: nobody with talent wants to work there. The few people left with a brand name (Posnanski) or younger talented reporters (Klemko) are fleeing. It's a reign of terror. A miserable treadmill where everything everybody does sucks, according to the editors. Anybody who gets out of that hellhole with a year's severance pay in their pocket is lucky. I wish to god I was with them.
ReplyDeleteGannett has never really valued experience and the wisdom that comes with it - except of course at the very highest levels where the rarified atmosphere somehow makes the VIPs able to think " out of the box" and be "bold and agile". So tired of THOSE phrases!
ReplyDeleteGannett is struggling to reinvent itself, at the cost of good employees. But if it really wanted to reinvent itself, it would free sites to make more choices instead of forcing everyone to march in lock-step, doing the same things the same ways, smothering the very innovation that's claimed as the goal.
Gannett tried that for years and years and years, and the reality is that people are the same everywhere — they're just as short-sighted and ego-driven. Multiply that by 100 and you have a mess. Maybe it didn't matter when money grew on trees, but it's a luxury that's no longer affordable.
DeleteWorth repeating: In a potentially worrisome sign, digital revenue growth contracts sharply
ReplyDeleteIt ain't over 'til it's over.
ReplyDeleteWhat's going to happen to the folks who did NOT take the buyout? Will some of them just be laid off at some point?
ReplyDeleteIt must be pretty difficult working for an employer that obviously wants you to leave. These buyouts that specifically target people just because of their age are a horrible way to do business.
In the long run, I believe USA Today will pay a price for how it has treated employees. That's not to say there probably isn't some fat that needs to be cut from that newsroom (most newsrooms have at least some dead wood), but these slashing and burning assaults of 50somethings certainly create some bad karma that can in time impact the bottom line.
GCI STOCK OVER $21 a share. Wall Street likes!!!!
ReplyDeleteWall Street loves when when companies reduce their work force. They are a soul-less bunch.
DeleteI think Wall Street just really, really hated Saraceno.
Delete(Umm, that's a joke.)
Just think how much the stock price would zoom if we got rid of the dead weight in both towers of the Crystal Palace.
Deletewhy cant pressmen get a buyout id take it in a heartbeat
ReplyDelete$21.95 per share
ReplyDeleteyipee
Is some1 serious that this is super?
$60 per share would be super
It was a buck and a half two years a go. So yippee ki yeh Mother F-----r!!!!!
DeleteMike's problem is that of any seasoned journalist who is halfway decent compared to most of the hack editors and reporters there. He threatens the so called experts too insecure to be challenged or questioned by anyone.
ReplyDeleteAll I can say, 2:55, is yes! You are exactly right. And now no one is left to challenge or question them. Sad.
ReplyDelete