"It is what it is."

Immediately after Tim Finchem's Sherwood media chat Saturday, I asked the Commish about layoffs in the media world and whether the PGA Tour is concerned about how the situation might impact coverage.

Yes, we have. It's a changing communication world. The bad news is that, I guess, you don't have as many different heads evaluating the sport or reporting back, which is not good. On the other hand, it's a more global reach with anything that happens in the Internet environment and that's a good thing. So I'm not so sure you can reverse the trend. It is what it is.

You can just feel the empathy, eh?

Now, I would never presume to tell someone making $4.8 million a year how to do his job, however, if I were Commish and standing on enemy turf (in thise case, a nicely heated and fully furnished cart barn with excellent food), I might have said something like:

Of course we're monitoring the situation and naturally we are sad anytime anyone loses a job. From a more selfish perspective, we know that newspaper and print coverage is where our fans and broadcast partners learn more about our players. All of those great little anecdotes and insights humanize them and make out tour better. So anytime you see less coverage in print it is one less opportunity for our fans to experience a unique perspective and that's a concern.

I can dream, no?

Comments

[thusgone]

i guess once a writer gets laid off, he or she is no longer a "stakeholder" in finchem's world. but the media outlet that did the laying off still is.

plus, as a guy whose golden parachute ensures that he'll be among the last to go in the unlikely event that right-sizing ever comes to tour hq, it's not surprising that he sees the layoffs as an unavoidable side effect of the internet and its global reach.

empathy has never seemed to be this guy's long suit anyway.

[johnny knoxville]

The TV show was a snore fest at Sherwood and seems the interview with Tim was much the same. Couldn't watch more than a few minutes at a time.

It was fun though to see nice sunny weather during my channel surfs and imagine how nice spring will be.

[Scott]

Will golf go the way of NHL hockey or horse racing in that it will be hard to find stories about golf in newspapers (online or newsprint)?

Newspapers are going to cut out the sports that have the least readership.

When will the PGA TOUR realize that it is a "It's a changing communication world" and that there will be fewer and fewer reporter covering golf tournaments?

I guess the PGA TOUR will have to incentivize the use of the Internet for communication.

[O.B.]

Finchem sounds like someone happy to see the press go and replaced by propaganda writers at PGATour.com.

[Mike T.]

Sure the media landscape's changing, but in the words of another kind of writer -- Joni Mitchell -- "Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone." The Commish may not miss those golf writers and their insights, but a lot of us will.