By David Scott
Boston Sports Media Watch

Bit by bit, the Gatehouse Media plan for its new, local acquisitions are beginning to emerge at all levels.

Here’s an email that went out to the Patriot Ledger editorial staff last Thursday. Chazy Dowaliby – in addition to having the greatest name in all of newspaper publishing – is the editor of the Ledger.

Be sure to first notice the subject line. That, my friends, is spin.

From: Chazy Dowaliby REDACTED EMAIL ADDRESS
Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2006 18:18:32 -0400
To: REDACTED [general editorial email]
Subject: A whole new audience for your work

Folks,

Beginning this week we are sharing our stories, photos and graphics with the CNC dailies.

There are four of them Metro West Daily News, Daily News Tribune
(Waltham), Milford Daily News and Daily News Transcript (Dedham) and they are all AM papers.

Ledger material will appear in the dailies after it has been published
by us.

I strongly believe that it will be a benefit to our readers to have access to many of the solid news, feature and visual reports produced by
CNC daily staff, or to use some of that material to enhance our own
original reporting.

As we now do with material shared with The Enterprise, editors at CNC will respect bylines. If stories are briefed or significantly edited for length, bylines will be removed. Photos and illustrations will also carry credits, of course.

Chazy

Need all that simplified for you? Try this: Go to the Townonline website, which currently is a copyrighted site of both Gatehouse and Herald Interactive, Inc. (In addition to “building community” as their tagline indicates, GateHouse is also doing some serious maneuvering.)

From that one townonline page, you can, as of now, get to pretty much every eastern Mass. newspaper/and or website aside from those controlled by the Boston Globe/NYT Company. Each and every one of those Gatehouse papers (and the Herald) and websites is now, officially and unequivocally “in-bed” together. They are sharing stories, picture, web elements and, in theory, ad revenues.

Once the final shakedown of the purchase comes and Gatehouse separates once and for all from the Herald (believed to be in December, at which time the Herald will no longer be able to share GateHouse content), the sluggish Globe will, all of the sudden have a very formidable opponent in the Gatehouse Bully. And the Herald, unless it can pick up the web-side in a hurry, will be left a distant third.

No small part of all this on the Sports side will be how Gatehouse handles what is already proving to be a very repetitive staff, especially on the major beats. Instead of a beat reporter from W, X,Y, and Z newspapers (which are all owned by Gatehouse), it might make more sense to the Beancounters to have just one of those beat people provide the content for W, X, Y and Z’s print and web editions. Thus, writers for W, X, and Y are either laid off, re-assigned or, the very-popular “offered buyouts.” Writer Z likely capitalizes from the increased exposure, but he/she does it at the expense of a friend/competitor/mere acquaintance who gets kicked to the curb.

• Just how uncertain are things for some of the Gatehouse family? Well, we’re hearing that at least two of the papers (the Ledger and the Enterprise) are not only short-staffed, they’re both sports editor-less.

This week’s neon sign that the mice are scurrying from unsteady ships came when an established sports editor at the MetroWest Daily News, Craig Larson, stepped down from that position to take a reporter’s position at the Boston Globe’s, Globe West sports desk. That slot, you’ll recall, has been vacant since the late-July promotion of Mike Reiss to full-time on the Globe (proper’s) sports desk, and now, as the Patriots beat writer.

Larson, a 1984 Curry College graduate and a 15 year veteran of the MetroWest (the past eight as sports editor), confirmed the move in an email to Shots: “Yes, I have accepted a position at the Globe. My last day at MetroWest was last Friday night; I will start at the Globe on Monday, the 18th.”

It’s not often that a suburban paper’s sports editor will hop back onto a regular beat, but Larson’s move is probably a good sign of the uncertainty facing many staffers at the Boston-area Gatehouse titles. His move seems to indicate that even an entirely different job description with the Globe is a better proposition than an uncertain job description with the purchase-happy (and cost-cutting) Gatehouse peeps.

“It was really a great run, working with an incredibly dedicated and passionate staff,” Larson wrote in his email. “I owe a lot to all of them. Together, we were able to consistently produce quality sections. But I am very excited about taking on a new challenge at the Globe. And I look forward to contributing any way I can.”

Larson, a West Springfield (Mass.) classmate of former Olympian Tim Daggett, has some college sports coverage in his background, which we know Joe Sullivan drools over, so we’re pretty sure he’ll pitch in on that side as well.

As with any career move, some of Larson’s thought process was likely dictated by the fact that he is a husband [his wife, Lisa , is a high-on-the-masthead editor at the Herald] and father of a young girl, 18-month-old, Eva Marie. He’d like (and deserves) stability – not to mention better hours – at this stage of his career and there’s no saying that Gatehouse can promise that kind of safety (or sane hours).

“At this time, the opportunity to work at the Globe was one in which I could not pass up,” Larson wrote. “But this was also a lifestyle decision. With a young child at home, it was not fair to my family to be working to deadline and beyond every night.”

Left unsaid by Larson is this: If you were playing futures in Vegas with the ‘Safer Career Decision’ at this juncture, you’d rather have your money on the Globe – despite its myriad shortcomings.

Gatehouse is too much of an unknown entity and there’s a lurking fear that it will consolidate to the hilt and shrink the overall workforce for a more streamlined operation.

And the Herald, well, the Herald is what it is. Never on steady footing, but also not going anywhere.

As scary as it sounds to many of the Globe insiders, they are in the best of a bad situation for this region at this time in its media evolution.

. . . Sliding up into the executive sports editor role for the MetroWest will be Biggy Bigs the Soccer Guru, Mike Biglin, who had been the deputy sports editor under Larson. Baseball writer Art Davidson is expected to take Biglin’s old title of deputy dog.

. . . The promotion of Christopher Gasper from Globe North was officially announced to the Globe sports staff late last week by sports editor Sullivan. Look for Gasper to get reps on the Pats beat, but to also fill in all over the section. Bob Duffy has also been seeing some Foxboro duty and has been complementing the Reiss work nicely.

. . . For all this talk of newspaper shakiness, isn’t nice when a guy like Dave Doyle breaks free and lands a national gig covering something he has deep passion for? And having a w hole lot of “fun” in the process.

I’m not a softy by nature, but that does give me hope for the rest of us.

. . . It’s not necessarily a web-friendly write-up (you’ll need to scroll down and look for the sentence beginning “Chris Snow, 25, once worked. . .”), but this does catch us up with Gone Globie, Chris Snow.

. . . One last Globe gleaning: Did the Sunday section already abandon their attempt at a fun, playful, Sunday-suited Page 2? We never particularly liked what they were doing on a consistent basis, but at least they were trying new things. Now we’re back to general layouts with no “voice,” no reviews and no overblown pictures.

Quitters!

• Credit Yahoo! Sports for being all over the Reggie Bush goings-on from the get-go and for now putting together an impressive package on the apparent shenanigans. This won’t play well in at least two places: Pete Carroll’s office and New Orleans.

You know it’s good stuff when ESPN.com has it as the No. 1 on story on the scroll AND gives the competing news organization (yes, that’s exactly what Yahoo! is) up-front credit for the story. (The Associated Press helped by promimently playing the story as well and trying to get some reaction.)

The compilation was clearly spearheaded by ex-LA Times’ Sports No. 2, Dave Morgan (now Yahoo!’s No. 1) and excruciatingly, painstakingly reported by Charles Robinson, Jason Cole and digger-extraordinaire, Josh Peter. Throw in a “Vacate-the-title” masterpiece by Dan Wetzel, and the result is a lesson in Internet Journalism 101 from one of New Media’s most progressive - and aggressive - sports units.

Bravo, we say. Bravo!

• We’ll have to see how this shakes down, but it sounds like NBC7 will brand the CW56 10 p.m. news as “News 7 at 10 p.m” on Channel 56. That will mean a consolidation of sports staffs, which could ultimately bolster NBC7 if they were to retain and combine the pro’s pro, Mike Ratte from 56 with getting-better/or-just-growing-on-us, Joe Amorosino and perhaps a new No. 3, hopefully a woman in the mold of the ESPN-departed Wendi Nix. It’s believed Dave Briggs’s time is running out at 7 and this pending consolidation of resources between 7 and 56 won’t bode well for his Boston market future. Jamie Kenneally might need to go back to walking the cop beat in the numbers crunch which will follow the completion of the purchase later this Fall.

• Two XM observations of the week from the Shanty’s Consumer Reports division:

. . . The Loft (Ch. 50) hitting me with the Dead’s “Bertha” on Wednesday afternoon during my late lunch (2:30 p.m.) was too good to explain.

Bertha, don’t you come around here – any more!

. . . The XM Roady’s boom box from Delphi is a nice, white plastic unit, and I do use it much more than the car mount

But the remote for the boom box is virtually useless. It’s remote only in the sense that it’s not attached. But it, like Team USA in basketball, has NO RANGE.

And who designs a remote these days without a number pad?

. . .The probability that I will re-new after my six month commitment now stands at 30 percent. I can live without XM, but it does have some nice accoutrements. I’d be more inclined to pay five or 10 bucks a month and get a minutes plan, like the cell phone companies do. I could get by on two hours a day or a cap of 75 hours a month – something like that.

• All you need to know about the remainder of the Red Sox season on NESN, comes from Thursday’s night’s pregame show.

Drained and forlorn, Jerry Remy, in Baltimore, after a lengthy riff on the portly male model at the NESN gear page, scratched his right temple and asked Tom Caron in the Watertown studio: “How many more of these do we have?”

“Too many,” came the retort from Caron, “too many.”

Amen, TC.

. . . NESN tried to get folks excited for Bruins hockey by announcing they have given Rob Simpson another opportunity to show his goofy, animated side come November.

I’m overcome with giddiness and anticipation for “Rubber Biscuit.” I really am.

• On NESN’s “SportsPlus” Soundoff segment, Bob Ryan, gave the Jacobs ownership group this season to get things right before they’ll be run out of town. From the looks of this, the process is already beginning.

Talk about setting the agenda - Basketball Bob works in mysterious ways!

• Shots got into some Web-based radio this past week and despite the scary prospect of Shots offering “Life Tips,” the sports marketing discussion that ensued with host, Melanie Nayer, was, at times, both informational and entertaining. The truly interesting part of the show came with Guest No. 1, Alex Baldwin from the Fenway Sports Group, an organization we’re fairly certain is on the verge of global takeover.

• For the record, and again, I’m not going to keep a scoreboard on these things, but Mike Reiss and the Globe had a good 20 minute head-start on everyone with the Deion Branch trade on Monday. It was, arguably the biggest local sports storyline of the past six weeks. So he does deserve a tip of the cap, once again.

• The Pats are on-board with a Dana Farber project, so you know Shots is down with that.

• I’m also with this perceptive person on ESPN’s Dan Fouts.

Fouts was always solid as the color guy at ABC (pro and college); but his PBP switch for the ESPN college games is not looking good. On Saturday night he teamed with overshadowed color man, Tim Brant for some uncomfortable minutes of Shots’ valuable time. It’s too bad, because we’re pretty sure it was the thrilling UTEP-Texas Tech game that Mark Blaudschun mentioned in Monday’s consistently, stagnant, national college football notebook.

(That was an unsolicited shot at Blaudy Blaudy, but it’s time for supposed college guy Joe Sullivan to get a REAL, new age, college guy on the top of that beat. It’s only come to light because the sports desk has started promoting this sad excuse for a College Sports blog.

Don’t, Mr. Sullivan, start “logo-ing” and teasing the web page from the print pages until the web pages are actually ready for public consumption. You will get me there once, but I’m not guaranteeing I’ll return – especially if I’m seeing a Thursday 9/7 entry when I check in at mid-day 9/12 (Tuesday). Weekends and Monday are the time when college football fans troll for scores and analysis – 9/8 through 9/11 was Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday – there was not one update during that stretch.

That’s not a blog. It’s a sad excuse at giving premature Internet presence for something you don’t even do adequately in print.

• We’re still giving CN8 the honeymoon pass for its newly re-vamped 11 p.m. Boston sports offering (now called “Out of Bounds. . . without Lou Tilley” – kidding, it’s just “OOB.”)

The show is surely going through some growing pains and there’s no harm in giving the always-accommodating CN8 folks a 30-day. free trial, free pass period. We would, in the meantime, expect some more promotion of the WEEI link with both John Wallach (11 p.m. show) and Michael Holley (7 p.m., Philly-originating “OOB”) appearing regularly. And we, suppose, there should also be some more touting of Ron Borges regular appearance on the 11 p.m. show, sharing table time with John Carchedi and Phil Burton. Borges’ smarm doesn’t always work on TV, but he can rabble-rouse when he needs to, that’s for sure. Certainly a good foil for Philly phans to hate.

With an underwhelming initial launch campaign, the Philly-based ‘Net is currently, according to CN8 spokeswoman, Robin Moleux, “airing radio spots on WZLX-FM promoting ‘Out of Bounds’ and has an advertisement appearing in this month’s Boston Sports Review.

“All weekend, CN8 will have a booth promoting ‘Out of Bounds’ at the New Hampshire International Speedway for the NASCAR race. In addition, CN8 held a sweepstakes to drive tune-in to the premiere of ‘Out of Bounds,’ which awarded the winner tickets to the NASCAR race and accommodations. The network also airs numerous cross-channel spots highlighting “Out of Bounds.”

(The winner of the contest was a Mount Joy, Pa. resident.)

We’ll reserve overall judgments for another couple of weeks with the caveat that the no-name, B-level, talking heads from along the eastern seaboard, aren’t exactly demanding our attention (Yes, we are referring to you Rhea Hughes.) We (Boston) share Michael Holley with the Comcast audience and they give us Rhea Freakin’ Hughes?

• This makes a bit more sense for the Big Redhead than the WNBA ever did.

• Stacey Dales had us at hello on ABC’s ESPN production of the BC game last Saturday. She has to be Top 3 on the all-time sideline reporters who possess the entire package. And she hasn’t even been doing it all that long.

. . . Both Dales and Nancy Lieberman have dropped the hyphen names. It’s wrong of us to speculate (and/or hope for) the circumstances that lead to those two name changes. Very, very wrong of us.

• And yes, we’ve fallen head over heels for the Dales-esque talent named, Emily, on CSTV.com’s “MISSION:SEC.” Watch the 9/12 video when she switches from the Vols hat the ‘Cocks hat. I’ve got it playing in a loop on the iMac.

• By the way, nice list here of a bunch of talking heads, if you’re trying to keep track.

• Stay safe out there – it’s an Endless Summer weekend in Hull. As if anyone needed to tell us that!

David Scott writes from a seaside shanty on the shores of Hull, Mass. And can be reached at shotsATbostonsportsmedDOTcom

Shots welcomes recorded messages – up to two minutes – by clicking below. Go ahead – you know you want to try it!