Athletic fired Fegan in Jun23, now hired with Sox Machine

[Look at Ray Ray Run]

1 hour ago, nrockway said:

I have an Athletic subscription because I subscribe to the NY Times and it's a really really bad publication. It used to be heralded as 'smart', longform investigative sports journalism, but it's fallen into the same trap as as pretty much every other 'journalistic outlet' on the internet: repost things you read on twitter, repeat the things your 'sources' (agents with ulterior motives) tell you, focus exclusively on spectacle and drama because storylines are more important than the sport itself.

 

I don't think that described Fegan so he had to go. Either that or having a White Sox specific page wasn't profitable enough and his $60k a year salary was too much to stomach. Maybe he can go work for the Reinsdorf propaganda outlet Stadium, some Bulls guy (Rob Schaefer) was recently fired by NBCSN and now works for the Bulls...kinda sad, he was really good, now he has to be a yesman. 

Pro publica has more long form good journalism than the times and it's free.

[Heads22]

Aside from feeling bad for James in all of this, its a loss of the only real, constant coverage of the team that wasn't state media

[Texsox]

7 minutes ago, Heads22 said:

Aside from feeling bad for James in all of this, its a loss of the only real, constant coverage of the team that wasn't state media

We'll always have here to tell us how horrible the franchise is. Do we really need the Athletic to remind us how utterly incompetent the entire organization is? 

[Quin]

25 minutes ago, Texsox said:

We'll always have here to tell us how horrible the franchise is. Do we really need the Athletic to remind us how utterly incompetent the entire organization is? 

Tex, honestly, what point are you trying to make in this thread?

Fegan wrote good articles and properly covered the team. He lost his job and a lot of Sox fans are rightfully annoyed.

Long form drivel driven rants on this board are obviously not a replacement for good coverage of a team. 

Do we need Jim Bowden's constant brain droppings sent as push alerts? Not really, but, that'll drive traffic because it's tagged as "former GM previews the trade deadline!" and then it's 10 completely asinine proposals from Bowden that won't get made in a million years.

Like, if you want to be that nihilistic, we can just say "what is the point of hiring broadcasters? To narrate shitty baseball?"

[South Side Hit Men]

11 minutes ago, Quin said:

Tex, honestly, what point are you trying to make in this thread?

Fegan wrote good articles and properly covered the team. He lost his job and a lot of Sox fans are rightfully annoyed.

Long form drivel driven rants on this board are obviously not a replacement for good coverage of a team. 

Do we need Jim Bowden's constant brain droppings sent as push alerts? Not really, but, that'll drive traffic because it's tagged as "former GM previews the trade deadline!" and then it's 10 completely asinine proposals from Bowden that won't get made in a million years.

Like, if you want to be that nihilistic, we can just say "what is the point of hiring broadcasters? To narrate shitty baseball?"

Even if the team was/is bad, many appreciated James' in game and pre/post twitter reporting. While I was a subscriber, I really enjoyed his in depth features on players and other aspects of the team you weren't going to get with the weak Chicago (tv, radio, print) or in-house media.

[Y2Jimmy0]

MLB Draft coverage will take a big step back without Fegan. The beats don’t care about it and it’s a tough time on the calendar 

[nrockway]

2 hours ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

Pro publica has more long form good journalism than the times and it's free.

Good one. I like CJR (Columbia Journalism Review) for similar reasons. Unfortunately it's not profitable to do this kind of journalism (or at least it isn't profitable if the medium is PPC advertising) anymore. All that space on the page where there's words could be filled with advertisements instead so all journalists really have to do is write something moderately polarizing and their job is done. People will click on it because they're outraged or because it supports their worldview

 

I want something like this for sports though and that was supposed to be The Athletic. Oh well.

[Texsox]

8 hours ago, Quin said:

Tex, honestly, what point are you trying to make in this thread?

Fegan wrote good articles and properly covered the team. He lost his job and a lot of Sox fans are rightfully annoyed.

Long form drivel driven rants on this board are obviously not a replacement for good coverage of a team. 

Do we need Jim Bowden's constant brain droppings sent as push alerts? Not really, but, that'll drive traffic because it's tagged as "former GM previews the trade deadline!" and then it's 10 completely asinine proposals from Bowden that won't get made in a million years.

Like, if you want to be that nihilistic, we can just say "what is the point of hiring broadcasters? To narrate shitty baseball?"

I have so many different points and they changed through out the day. 

They fired the Sox, but also didn't take the opportunity to reassign Fegan (like they did many others), who by all accounts is a great writer. They could have fired any of the other Central beat writers and had him pick up the extra. So maybe it's a bit more than just the Sox. Salary? So many other top writers from good teams were also let go.

East coast media have ignored the Sox and much of the Midwest forever, so this is just a long continuation of East Coast bias. f*** them. 

I've gotten to the point with this shitty franchise that I'm looking at it like any other reality TV show. I don't care if some actor has a side chick with a baby. I don't care about TA's personal problems. I don't need a reporter to dig up why my favorite show is sucking this year. I don't need him to investigate and ask hard questions of the producers, the casting director, the director. I already know they suck and they hired people who suck and it won't change. So why read the article.

Want to talk about engagement numbers? Right here. We are way down. Traffic sucks on the site. Thankfully we had this discussion to gather some posts. This is a ghost town when a couple posters just posts the same stuff. Someone posts a different point of view, asks some questions, and engagement goes up. 

Why do the happy crap reporters keep their jobs? The more fans learn about this franchise the more they understand it's the worse one in all of baseball. Totally pathetic for over 100 years. So fans stop reading articles that just remind them how bad it is. Because the truth just sends casual fans to the exit and they stop reading and the engagement numbers drop. Sell a vision to the casual fan and they may keep reading. 

Time for JR to sell or take his crappy ass team elsewhere to fail. Chicagoans don't care enough about his team to keep a beat reporter employed. 

 

[Texsox]

And I cancelled my subscription as well and cited firing the Sox beat writer as the reason. It renewed next month. I may have to renew in the fall for Hawks and Spurs coverage but maybe my daily reading habits will change. 

[Kyyle23]

 

[Texsox]

Anyone want to offer a TL/DL?

 

[caulfield12]

Contract was through the of the season but decided to make Friday last day since he will getting paid through then and can use free time now to pursue new opportunities. 

Even had air tickets and hotel for Dodgers trip but decided not to go just to say goodbye to all the players and staff...didn't really like talking about himself or hearing plaudits coming his way.  Kind of felt like two deaths getting fired and also praised repetitively but that's still not enough to save his job. 

Didn't watch Lynn start because it's hard for him not to watch like he's going to write a story and follow-up Q's in Google docs. 

Only about 50-60% of MLB markets have beat writers now with The Athletic. 

Garfien went over his three firings in five years and Fegan's shared similar story from his time with a South Bend newspaper that was bought out. 

Seemed a bit frustrated and emotionally drained wondering if there was anything he could have realistically done as a writer in the face if this White Sox season. Cried a lot on Monday morning. 

Numbers just weren't there to justify his existence. 

Seems like his wife has a solid job so not at a total loss.  Ruminated on getting to this point at 36 despite being pretty fatalistic about the future of print/sports journalism from the very beginning when just starting out at 22. 

Talked about progression from blogging 2010-2016 in order to improve his writing to the point where it became a full time career. 

 

[Texsox]

Thank you. 

 

[South Side Hit Men]

The Athletic is paying him and the other MLB writers under contract through October. They only save on travel costs for the remaining 8 road trips if they would have released him and the other MLB writers after the season. Just poor timing/decision making. James declined finishing the season because he was being paid either way. Just a bad decision by what appears to be a badly run business.

The timing for the NBA and NHL writers make sense.

[Texsox]

10 minutes ago, South Side Hit Men said:

The Athletic is paying him and the other MLB writers under contract through October. They only save on travel costs for the remaining 8 road trips if they would have released him and the other MLB writers after the season. Just poor timing/decision making. James declined finishing the season because he was being paid either way. Just a bad decision by what appears to be a badly run business.

The timing for the NBA and NHL writers make sense.

Giving the writers potentially a four month severance and time to line something else up seems humane and a decent thing to do. 

Also laying off staff every few months isn't good for moral. Better to rip the band-aid off all at once. 

 

[South Side Hit Men]

3 minutes ago, Texsox said:

Giving the writers potentially a four month severance and time to line something else up seems humane and a decent thing to do. 

Also laying off staff every few months isn't good for moral. Better to rip the band-aid off all at once. 

There were purges after Government / Corporate Mandated Lockdowns, purges this month, and will be more purges.

This isn't severance, it's paying out his legally binding contract. Severance would be to do the right thing by subscribers and their employees and finish the season, and then giving him an actual severance package above and beyond the bare contractual minimum they are paying him now. That would be the humane, decent and smart thing to do, for their employees and customers (current and potential).

[Sleepy Harold]

 

 

 

[pcq]

On 6/15/2023 at 6:44 AM, Texsox said:

And I cancelled my subscription as well and cited firing the Sox beat writer as the reason. It renewed next month. I may have to renew in the fall for Hawks and Spurs coverage but maybe my daily reading habits will change. 

Cancel my subscription to The Resurrection. Famous quote. 

[South Side Hit Men]

I hardly ever listen to the Score at this point, but felt this interview with James is worth listening to if you are a Fegan Fan.

https://www.audacy.com/podcast/bernstein-holmes-show-72b3e/episodes/james-fegan-on-his-brand-of-baseball-coverage-moving-on-from-the-athletic-hour-4-f1d62

 

[almagest]

9 minutes ago, South Side Hit Men said:

I hardly ever listen to the Score at this point, but felt this interview with James is worth listening to if you are a Fegan Fan.

https://www.audacy.com/podcast/bernstein-holmes-show-72b3e/episodes/james-fegan-on-his-brand-of-baseball-coverage-moving-on-from-the-athletic-hour-4-f1d62

 

That was solid. I really feel for James, even beyond thinking he's the best beat writer and it's a shame to lose him. You can tell how badly this affected him.

[hankchifan]

On 6/12/2023 at 3:07 PM, South Side Hit Men said:

Yes, they are axing other sports as well including the NHL’s biggest team.

Who the hell wants to subscribe to an ESPN version of sports coverage.

 

Seems like they are keeping some team writers with owners who give a s%*# and field teams people are interested in following.

 

Sucks that Jerry’s greed and avarice shrunk our fan base to the point we are disposable in the eyes of The Athletic. 

You hit it right on the head.  Sox is in a major market area with a minor market owner.  Was the Cubs also cancelled?

[Lip Man 1]

5 minutes ago, hankchifan said:

You hit it right on the head.  Sox is in a major market area with a minor market owner.  Was the Cubs also cancelled?

No the Cubs still have their beat writer.

[The Kids Can Play]

55 minutes ago, South Side Hit Men said:

I hardly ever listen to the Score at this point, but felt this interview with James is worth listening to if you are a Fegan Fan.

https://www.audacy.com/podcast/bernstein-holmes-show-72b3e/episodes/james-fegan-on-his-brand-of-baseball-coverage-moving-on-from-the-athletic-hour-4-f1d62

 

Well it sounds like Fegan is going to be ok for the rest of the year financially. As he mentioned his contract is good for the rest of the year, which is great. A talented guy like him can now take his time and to search and interview for his next sports site to work for. I would hope with his reputation and great work he is getting plenty of interest and inquires.

On the other hand, I understand why you hardly listen to the Score as it's exactly why I never listen to them. That was painful and annoying to listen to. Holmes and Bernstein are really bad at interviewing and just plain boring and terrible at what they do.

[Quin]

Hahn gets miffed about Fegan being let go here:

https://www.si.com/fannation/mlb/fastball/news/chicago-white-sox-general-manager-rich-hahn-fires-back-at-jon-heymans-thoughts-on-pedro-grifols-job-security?utm_source=reddit.com

[Balta1701]

35 minutes ago, Quin said:

Hahn gets miffed about Fegan being let go here:

https://www.si.com/fannation/mlb/fastball/news/chicago-white-sox-general-manager-rich-hahn-fires-back-at-jon-heymans-thoughts-on-pedro-grifols-job-security?utm_source=reddit.com

I cannot claim insight about how valid of a point this is, but here's a response from the Score saying that they can't be angry about local media when they don't communicate with local media.