When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
Jeff Rude's excellent piece on the rapid decline in the number of golf writers is not at Golfweek.com, but I think you can preview Golfweek digital this way and find it on page 16. And if you haven't seen the classy new redesign of the print edition, here's your chance. Note the expanded Forecaddie too. Good stuff. Subscribe!
As Jim Herre predicted recently, we're seeing a more discerning Golf Channel when it comes to covering their PGA Tour "partner." Besides the front page GolfChannel.com item, "Tim Finchem's Nightmare" (pictured left), check out Brian Hewitt's defense of the recent Rich Lerner interview with Tadd Fujikawa.
Of course we can celebrate the good in golf and nobody celebrates that good better than Golf Channel. What some people don’t seem to get, however, is that Golf Channel is a news organization, not a public relations firm.
Several readers spotted something I've been wondering about as well: the ubiquitous Frank Thomas. He's currently answering reader mail about equipment on GolfDigest.com, golf.com and GolfChannel.com.
If he can bring those three under his umbrella, I smell a Commissionership or maybe Middle East peace envoy gig in his future.
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?
Thanks to reader John for the Brooks Barnes story detailing ESPN.com's forthcoming redesign meant to, well, I'm not sure what. All I know is, they took the golf page link off the top banner. It's still easily found, but still wish they kept it close to the current site structure.
I'm always reluctant to check into Bob Carney's Editor's Blog for fear of reading something that gives me little faith in the people reading golf magazines. Today was one of those items.
Reader Alan Archer writes to complain about the Tiger-Rocco drawing from the recent Golf World newsmaker's issue.
Archer opens his letter with this line:
"The caricature of Tiger Woods eating Rocco Mediate as a snack is unfair and an inaccurate characterization of the facts."
Now, last I heard, a caricature is an unfair, inaccurate and totally not-factual representation. That's why they are fun.
Carney handled the response much more diplomatically than I would have.
hanks for the feedback on your favorite sites and on golf.com. One of the interesting points arising on the golf.com comment thread involved free online content and the decision of some to no longer subscribe to the print edition due to online availability. This has to be one of the trickiest areas for a publication, but I've long been a believer that paying magazine and/or web subscribers should have access to special content and print archives (the NYTimes.com model until recently) and while it would be deadly for a blogger, only breaking news pieces or original content be open to all online readers. It seems to me that ESPN.com/ESPN The Magazine has done a fine job of handling with this balance (of course I say this as a non-subscriber to the "Insider" service!).
This brings us to the dilemma for GolfDigest.com and GolfWorld.com, who share their site in partnership with ESPN.com and of course, with highly successful print operations. Obviously I am in an awkward position because I have contributed to GolfDigest.com and Golf World this year, but I still would like to offer a few comments to kick off the discussion.
The new layouts are greatly improved over the previous site layout, though I would like to see a larger text font (which explains why you get the big letters here at GS.com...what can I say, I'm an old man). The Golf Digest blogs are excellent in concept. The three blogs covered by those who also file prints stories delicately balance the fine line between offering complimentary yet still-distinct coverage from their print work. So while I would love to see more from Frost and Nixon on the equipment blog and less hemorroidal discomfort induced by the sheer pain of sitting through Matty G's "Ambushes," their online work along with Ryan Herrington's excellent college golf blog prove that there is a place for blogs that compliment the print editions.
Both sites offer a terrific amount of content from the magazines. But sometimes I wonder if it's too much? Might they be better served putting more of it behind a subscriber only wall to enhance the value (oops, there I go all Tim Finchem on you) for the paying customer? Or would that only scare you away?
I know as a reader I would like to see more podcasts and writer Q&A's similar to what the New Yorker has been doing, would you? Any blogs you would like to see and by which writers?
Okay, enough about me, tell us what you'd like to see on the GolfDigest.com/GolfWorld.com sites.
Since we know the only safe jobs in media are on Chicago Tribune Editorial Board, Alistair Tait reports the somber mood in Britain as an admired colleague (Lewine Mair) and respected paper (Daily Telegraph) ominously part ways. And in such dignified fashion.
“It was horrible the way it was handled,” she said. “I was called to a meeting on my return from China (where she was covering the World Cup) but it wasn’t held anywhere near the sports department, presumably in case I caused too much of a fuss. I was taken to an office where someone from human resources told me I was being made redundant in a tone that was completely cold and officious.
“I got no thanks for 20 years of hard work. It was all over in about 15 minutes.”
Mair’s departure has shocked newspaper writers over here. That’s why there was such a somber mood at today’s lunch in London to celebrate Padraig Harrington’s award as European golfer of the year.
If any newspaper was expected to hold onto its golf writer, it was The Telegraph. Arguably no British paper in recent years has given as much in-depth coverage to the game than this broadsheet. The general view is that if it could happen at The Telegraph, no one is safe.
Meanwhile, the street gossip is that The Times is set to ditch 10 percent of its work force. It has two excellent golf writers in John Hopkins and Peter Dixon. However, as Mair’s example shows, quality doesn’t matter when the bean counters start looking at ways to cut back.
These are worrying times. Who would recommend any youngster to go into journalism these days? Not me.
As I explained yesterday, the holidays allow for reflections on the sport we love. And since we're seeing a major shift toward an online presence for most publications, it seems like an appropriate time to think about where the emerging world of online news coverage is headed. And it beats watching the news.
So to kick off the week, let's start with SI Golf Plus and Golf Magazine-controlled golf.com.
I admire the meticulous look, organized structure, nice use of imagery and prominent-without-being-onoxious placement of ads. The news items are easily found in and ESPN.com/NYTimes.com way and updated rapidly, though I wish they'd leave the wire story author's name on all pieces they post (it's a blogger thing). Their columnists are solid, with Alan Shipnuck's weekly Hot List just the right balance of snark and information, while Gary Van Sickle reliably posts items worth reading. It'd be nice to see more content from Alan Bastable, Paul Mahoney, Michael Walker and Peter Kostis among others.
Okay, now that I have that off my chest, any golf.com readers care to tell us what they like and don't like?
Golf Channel has Bay Hill week, I have grading the golf websites week. Hey, as the kids say, it is what it is.
Since this is a slow news time and we appear to be in the developing stage of websites surpassing their print counterparts in importance, I thought it would be fun to analyze a golf news-website-a-day over the next seven days or so.
I'll offer a few quick comments but mostly this is about your insights as a web user. The people involved in these sites may be looking in, so try to keep things constructive, please. Think about what you like, don't like and what you'd like to see more of from the sites.
To kick things off, I'd love to hear you rank your top 5 golf news-related websites. If you'd like to offer up a few comments about why certain sites earn regular visits, that would be even better.
With the news that Jim McCabe has left the Boston Globe to replace Rex Hoggard at Golfweek (now at GolfChannel.com), Sal Johnson recaps the dizzying changes in golf newspaper coverage over the last decade. I also understand there has been a shake up at the Daily Telegraph, so it's not just an American issue.
Let's face reality, this isn't an isolated problem to fall on just the Boston market but a total purge on golf writing in not only this country but around the world. Just in the last couple of months we have seen the golf writers of the Los Angeles Times, Thomas Bonk, take a buy out. In Chicago, Ed Sherman of the Chicago Tribune left after the PGA Championship. Vartan Kupelian is no longer with the Detroit News, the writer of a paper in Washington is waiting to see if his contract will be renewed in '09. Just this week Bill Huffman is writing his last column for the East Valley Tribune and in neighboring Phoenix, the Arizona Republic told it's golf writer John Davis that he would be cut in half on golf, had to focus on just local golf no longer writing about the PGA and LPGA Tours and would be on the copy desk for half of his 40 hour week. Cities like Atlanta, St. Petersburg, Florida, Palm Beach, Florida, Kansas City, Houston, Texas and Hartford, Connecticut no longer have golf writers. Of course many of you may wonder why this is so important, but in the scope of things it's very important and one of the growing problems for the PGA Tour in the months ahead.
Check out these John Dominis images of Arnold Palmer from the Life archives now on Google (and available for purchase):
Richard Perez-Pena reports on a request of 100 volunteers for a buyout at Time Inc. and notes:
Hardest hit in the first round is the group that includes Sports Illustrated, Sports Illustrated Kids and Golf magazines. In a memorandum to his staff, Terry McDonell, managing editor of Sports Illustrated, asked for 40 people to leave voluntarily, out of an editorial staff at the magazine group of about 250 people.
Neil Sagebiel at the Armchair Golf blog interviews ESPN.com's Bob Harig about a variety of issues including the impact of fewer newspaper reporters covering golf:
ARMCHAIR GOLF: One of the latest casualties in the golf writing ranks was Thomas Bonk of the L.A. Times. Where do you see this thing heading as a golf writer?
BOB HARIG: It's bleak right now. I think it's bad for the sport that so many print people are no longer covering it. Newspapers still have tremendous reach and they have all decided that they don't need to cover golf. Their attitude is people can get the information elsewhere. Well then, you're telling them to go elsewhere – or forcing them to. If you don't cover it with your own guy, human nature says that you're going to give it less attention. So there is a medium that's not getting covered. I don't think it's good for the sport at all. I think they want as many voices and as many publications covering them as possible. You also have probably the most popular athlete in any sport and they choose to ignore it except for getting by with the bare minimum.
John Kirk's lovely tribute on GolfClubAtlas tipped me off on the passing of someone I only knew through email and his writings, though we tentatively planned on meeting and playing Rustic Canyon sometime this winter. That's one round I'll sorely miss playing (and you know how much I love slashing it around for five hours). But Dean's passion was so strong and his eye so unique, I couldn't wait to take him on a tour.
Dean wrote one of my favorite golf architecture stories, which you can read here. This spring he also filed this entertaining blog item on The Players v. The Masters. He was working on a follow up to his architecture piece titled "Saving Golf" and had quizzed me about a variety of topics via email. For a Red Sox fan, he sure got it.
He was a respected figure in the conservative blogosphere and his passing prompted a nice tribute from Mitt Romney, as well as this from the Weekly Standard. The Boston Globe also ran this obituary.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
