It was almost a year ago that Jay Mariotti resigned from his position at the Chicago Sun-Times. In the meantime, Jay has tried his hand at blogging and continued his appearances on "Around The Horn". You would have thought that those jobs were enough, but apparently Mariotti hasn't annoyed the city of Chicago enough in his mind. Mariotti is officially heading to the Chicago Tribune this September. Sports by Brooks has the scoop....

I’ve learned that effective September 1, Mariotti will join the Tribune as a weekly columnist - this the same man who spent nearly two decades mocking the same venerable daily which now extends him a byline. I do expect a seamless transition period though, considering the Trib set up Mariotti’s inbox long ago. (Uh, Jay, I thought ‘newspapers were dying‘?)

Mariotti’s contractual non-compete clause with the Sun-Times officially expires at the end of August, one year after he quit his position. So you can expect his ink-jetted invective to begin emanating from the Tribune in September.

It’s an interesting hire, considering Mariotti and the Tribune have very different motives with the move. The Tribune is bringing in Mariotti to fight off the startlingly advance of ESPN into the Chicago sports media marketplace. (Ironically, Mariotti also happens to be a prominent employee of ESPN.)

I'm sorry Chicago. I know how you must feel right now, and I can't sympathize with you enough. It's like a patient being told that he/she has beat Cancer, but now they've gone into remission, and it has returned. You can fully expect Mariotti to use this position to trash the Sun-Times, every chance he gets. Good times.

Official: Jay Mariotti Moving To Tribune On Sept. 1 (Sports by Brooks)

I'm still not sure why ESPN chose to start their local website launch in Chicago, but obviously it was successful enough that they decided to expand. The "Leader" announced the addition of three new local sites in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas. Via ESPN PR....

ESPN announced today that it will roll out three more city-specific sports sites in the months ahead, with Dallas, Los Angeles and New York joining the successful ESPNChicago.com. ESPNDallas.com is slated to launch this Fall, followed by ESPNNewYork.com and ESPNLosAngeles.com in the first half of 2010. Like ESPNChicago.com, each site will feature an integrated home for ESPN’s news and information, online video and digital audio powered by the flagship ESPN Radio station in each market, giving local fans a destination for their sports on-air, online, on-site and on mobile devices.

“Our commitment to expand ESPN’s network of localized sites is a testament to our dedication to serve sports fans and their passions,” said Marc Horine, vice president digital partnerships and sales development, ESPN Digital Media. “We understand that local sports interests ignite strong passions, and Dallas, New York and Los Angeles have some of the most storied franchises and fan bases in history. We’re excited by the early success we’ve had with ESPNChicago.com and the opportunities that lie ahead.”

Like ESPNChicago.com, each site will have its own short-form SportsCenter, hosted by SC anchors and providing an original 3-6 minute roundup of the city’s sports news, teams and figures each day.

According to the figures, ESPN Chicago is the city's most popular website by attracting almost 600K worth of traffic. Obviously if other local sites by ESPN could put the same amount of a dent in the market, then this is another death blow to the flailing newspaper industry. You can look for ESPN Dallas this fall, and NY and LA to launch shortly after that.

You have to feel bad when someone gets fired, but the way in which David Steele was let go from the Baltimore Sun was just downright evil. Steele, and others, were told via phone that they were being let go, but even worse while in the press box covering an Orioles game.

Well Steele has penned his first account of the events for Real Clear Sports, and here are some of the highlights, er lowlights....

Not long after that, around 2 p.m., one of the other writers pulled me aside: “Maese just sent a text saying he got laid off." It was a perfectly legible sentence, but it made no sense to anyone there. It’s the middle of the game, they just had layoffs yesterday, he’s a prominent columnist … huh? It wasn’t anything to joke about, but it didn’t sound true at all. But he had, for the moment, disappeared from his seat.

I went back to my seat and saw that there was a message on my cell from the office. I hadn’t turned the ringer back up after the manager’s pre-game press conference, so I hadn’t heard it. The message: call back as soon as you get this. Good, I thought, we’ll straighten out this business of who is writing for the next day. Which, technically, is what happened. Still, apparently, I was either completely clueless or in total denial, I’m still not sure which.

It didn’t matter. I called back and got the voice mail. At 2:34 p.m. (that time-stamp is kind of stuck in my head for the time being), the office called back. I went into a hallway behind the press box and answered it with something like, “Hey, what’s up?’’ Or “What’s going on?’’ Along those lines.

My editor greeted me, paused, took a deep breath. “David, I’m sorry you have to be told this way …"

I actually doubled over. It wasn’t a sharp pain, and it wasn’t like I was about to get sick. It was more like a knot in my stomach. I know I said, “Aw, shit,’’ but I don’t know how loud I said it, apparently not loudly enough for my editor to take note of it. The rest is a little fuzzy, something about just now getting the list and the union and not wanting me to hear it from someone else and getting paid through the end of May and severance and human resources and return your possessions to us and thank you for your hard work and professionalism and blah blah blah.

That is just the lowest of the low right there, and a chilling account of what went down. Growing up in that area, the Baltimore Sun has always been dysfunctional, but hearing something like this just signifies the end of the end. You would have thought that the way it was depicted on "The Wire" would have been the nail in the coffin, but gutting the Sports Department seems to be the final straw. There's really no other reason to read the thing.

Press Box Layoff: How the Baltimore Sun Fired Me (Real Clear Sports)

I mentioned a month or so ago, that ESPN was launching a city-specific website for Chicago, and it was launched yesterday. There is a column by Scoop Jackson featured, all Chicago-based news and even a complete Sports Center entirely devoted to the city. Oh and they even got Chris Berman to host it!

While the undertaking is certainly impressive, it makes you wonder even more about the state of newspapers in the Windy City, and why they couldn't pull something like this off. Obviously time will tell if people respond to it, but it doesn't look good for print in Chicago.

Peter King usually uses the last page of his Monday Morning Quarterback column for a collection of random thoughts, and in his last "thing he thinks he thinks", he decided to take a shot at the New York Times. The Times, who acquired the Globe recently, announced that the Boston paper is dangerously close to being shut down, much to the dismay of the state of Massachusetts and King....

You cannot be serious about shuttering the Boston Globe, you New York Times people. That's unjust and ridiculous and will be a black mark against anything you do journalistically in the long-term. How do you walk into the flagship journalistic institution in a six-state region and say, "Unless everyone in the building takes a monstrous pay cut, and a few of you walk away from your jobs forever, we're closing the place?'' What kind of management style is that?

I think everyone is in agreement that it would be a shame to lose an institution like the Boston Globe, and it's certainly good to have someone as widely read as King, to have in your corner.

Ten Things I Think I Think (SI: Peter King)

Randball came across the Chicago Sun-Times press release this afternoon in regards to Jay Mariotti quitting his role at the paper, and it could quite possibly be the funniest statement ever written. From RB via Poyneter...

Topic: Miscellaneous items
Date/Time: 8/27/2008 1:19:18 PM
Title: Sun-Times' statement regarding Jay Mariotti
Posted By: Jim Romenesko

Release from the Sun-Times

August 27, 2008

Chicago Sun-Times Editor in Chief Michael Cooke issued the following statement today regarding the resignation of sports columnist Jay Mariotti:

The Chicago Sun-Times had the best sports section in the city before Jay Mariotti came to town -- that's why he signed up with us -- and his departure does not change that.

We still have the stars -- respected veterans such as Rick Telander, fiery newcomers such as Greg Couch, quirky voices like Carol Slezak, not to mention seasoned beat reporters tracking the Cubs and White Sox toward their eventual collision in the World Series, plus the Bears, the Bulls, the Blackhawks, and all the other teams that make Chicago the sports center of the nation. We could have a World Series in Chicago in a couple of months ... talk about excitement!

The Chicago Sun-Times and suntimes.com will continue to have the scores and the stories before anyone else, anywhere, and the deepest and most comprehensive stats and standings. We wish Jay well and will miss him -- not personally, of course -- but in the sense of noticing he is no longer here, at least for a few days.

A paper, like a sports franchise, is something that moves into the future. Stars come and stars go, but the Sun-Times sports section was, is and will continue to be the best in the city.

Hahahaha. With that one jab, Michael Cooke just became my hero. It's sad that his industry is dying, and that Mariotti wins out in the end because he'll always have an opportunity to spew his nonsense at ESPN, but that's just downright hilarious. Bitter much?

Update: Mariotti is still doing ATH from the CS-T newsroom. They must not hate him THAT much....

"All these celebrations in and around Chicago. What's going on today?"- Jay Mariotti

Sun-Times' statement regarding Jay Mariotti (Poynter)
Jay Mariotti will not be missed by his editor (Randball)

Sporting News debuted it's first edition of Sporting News Today this morning and so far it's been welcomed with mixed reviews. I've talked to a few folks, and scoured some message boards, and the overwhelming feeling is that it's too difficult to use. The paper itself lays out in a format similar to a PDF file and you use buttons at the top to click from page to page. A handful of pages are advertisements, but for the most part the thing is packed with content. The thing is an amazing 33 pages long and you even got a look at Terry Francona that you, "won't find on Facebook!" They claim it's the first of its kind, and I can't remember seeing anything like it before.

The fact that they are delivering this thing 365 days a year blows my mind, and while the graphics and content are going in the right direction, I just don't think the format is going to work. Printing it out would be the way to go, but you'd be killing a lot of trees and wasting a lot of ink. It'll be interesting to see if it catches on and I encourage you to subscribe and check it out if you're interested.

Sporting News Today (Sporting News)
Sporting News Today Signup (Sporting News)

An Anon commenter sent this in yesterday and it was just about the funniest thing I've seen in quite some time. He/She noted that this is everything that's wrong with the newspaper industry but I'm hoping it's just some sort of joke.


I know people in New York take their teams seriously, but that seems like a waste of ink, er web space. In the end I think it's important that our good friend Jason's allegiance has been duly noted in a major publication. The world is safe once again.

P.S.- There are still Shawn Green fans? You learn something new everyday and in this case....two things!

Thursday, Jul. 10, 2008 (Newsday)

Tony Kornheiser is really starting to depress me as of late. He was on 790 The Ticket with Dan Le Batard yesterday and said the above quote in a talk about his buyout and the state of print media....

I'll try to ignore the fact that Kornheiser conveniently waited until HIS retirement to say that the medium is dead and just focus on his words. While I don't entirely understand the attachment to ink and paper, it's still sad to hear someone lose something they love so much. If you add to these statements Le Batard's words over at TBL it makes it even more depressing.

As someone who worked for newspapers in every capacity from writer to paper boy I obviously have some attachment to the industry, but I see it differently. Newspapers aren't dead, they're just different. There's nothing wrong with change and to deny it is just counter-productive. The fact that Kornheiser thinks of himself as useless now is just weird to me.

Tony Kornheiser joins Dan to discuss why he is leaving the newspaper industry (790 The Ticket)