Dallas papers cutting back sports coverage

Because I have a BJ (that would be Bachelor of Journalism) degree hanging on my office wall, stories of the downfall of print journalism carry a particular interest for me. I remember back in j-school in the mid-90s, the trend of newspapers suffering financially had already begun and thinking, "Geez. Is this really what I want to deal with in my career? Or is there some internet crap I can do?" I went the internet crap route. :)

Now, it seems with the economy going to shit and papers getting the short end of the advertising dollar, some pubs are having to get creative. The Dallas Morning News and the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram are apparently divvying up Big D's sports coverage and, presumably, putting some sports writers out on the street.

The deal, apparently, is that the Morning News will continue to cover the Mavs and Stars and the Star-Telegram will cover the Rangers and NASCAR, and then the two will share stories with each other. I guess the Cowgirls still warrant their own herd of reporters at each pub.

First of all, Morning News for the win. Even if I liked baseball, I wouldn't want to cover those perennial losers, and well, NASCAR. I can't believe that's even a regular beat in Dallas. Sometimes I just can't believe how different Dallas and Houston are.

Anyway, hockey fans win in this scenario, at least in terms of the prevailing writing staff who will be covering the Stars. Mike Heika does a good job covering the Stars, and I never much cared for the coverage of the team by the Star-Telegram. On the surface, where I've hovered as a semi-fan of the Stars, the coverage seemed very redundant.

But I do hate to see hockey writers, especially female hockey writers, get the short straw. And I hate to see print journalists getting screwed in general. Not to say I actually know anything beyond what the link above reveals or what's happening to the writers whose beats are being merged to the other paper, but I would guess it's not landing jelly side up for them.