b.hayes Posted August 5, 2014 Share Posted August 5, 2014 Tom will no longer be covering the SLU beat after this month, per this recent article: http://www.stltoday.com/sports/college/slu/billiken-beat/changing-of-the-guard/article_c3e8b376-8053-5b75-a215-d43586cae9bd.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter Stu Durando will be taking his place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Box and Won Posted August 5, 2014 Share Posted August 5, 2014 I wonder if the Post is dropping its coverage of Illini hoops? I've noticed their Illini football articles come from the Decatur Herald and Review now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slu72 Posted August 5, 2014 Share Posted August 5, 2014 Too bad. I liked TT. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianstl Posted August 5, 2014 Share Posted August 5, 2014 I wonder if the Post is dropping its coverage of Illini hoops? I've noticed their Illini football articles come from the Decatur Herald and Review now. Hard to believe they would just totally drop the Illini beat at the paper, but the Herald & Review is a Lee paper. Nothing from a Post writer for the Illini in over a month. I guess they view it as an easy way to save money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianstl Posted August 5, 2014 Share Posted August 5, 2014 It looks like they used Tuper from the Herald & Review last season, too. Shows how much attention I pay to the Illini. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kshoe Posted August 5, 2014 Share Posted August 5, 2014 I'll miss Timmerman and am disappointed that we'll lose somebody in the media that been through the ups and downs of it all. On the bright side, maybe Durando will cover recruiting a little more and produce more content like Dave Matter. Long term, we are going to need to stay good to maintain a beat reporter that they are willing to send on road trips. The Post is in cost cutting mode and I have to believe that trips to Olean, Pittsburgh, Richmond, etc. could be viewed as replaceable with guest articles from local writers. I hope it doesn't get to that but it may before we know it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bauman Posted August 5, 2014 Share Posted August 5, 2014 I just hope the P-D doesn't reassign J Rutherford from the Blues-he is a really good Blues writer. Also, hopefully Stu D doesn't continue the inane +/- bs in his coverage of the Bills. I enjoyed TT's humor but not his stat loaded articles. Plus-minus belongs in low scoring sports like soccer and hockey (if it even belongs anywhere), but not basketball. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willie Posted August 5, 2014 Share Posted August 5, 2014 I liked the plus minus. Sure it could be flawed bit I also think it told you something if you looked behind the raw numbers. I really will miss the travel reports. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brownwolves Posted August 5, 2014 Share Posted August 5, 2014 " Worst of all, this move means that chances are I will never go to Olean, N.Y. again. We all have to make sacrifices. " Tom, we will miss you! Your always welcome to the Enchanted Mountains... WOW ,,, I'll never forget that three point shot that Jorden Gathers made last year to beat St Louis again in the A-10 play-offs. Timmerman called it right when he said " St Bonaventure is the best underrated team in the Country " See you boys in January Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thetorch Posted August 6, 2014 Share Posted August 6, 2014 While Tom was somewhat lacking in some aspects he gave a good effort. I enjoyed his tenure as beat writer. The return of Stu now. He was not well liked previously and I doubt he will be this time either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VeniceMenace Posted August 6, 2014 Share Posted August 6, 2014 Agreed--Dave Matter continues to impress...wish we could have the same degree of coverage, particularly when it comes to recruiting. There's more info on our recruiting from out-of-town papers like the Indy Star -- pretty sad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billikenfan05 Posted August 6, 2014 Share Posted August 6, 2014 Timmerman almost refused to do any Billiken work in the offseason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MB73 Posted August 6, 2014 Share Posted August 6, 2014 I'd give TT a "C-" for his coverage over the years. I don't think he was bad, but he certainly didn't stick his neck out or break a sweat for us. 'Course, I'd give The SL Post, overall, an "F". Cost cutting mode? What else can they cut? Who would think they would fail, the way they handle the news and editorials favoring one side of the political spectrum 98% of the time. Foo foo failures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dwayne's_World Posted August 6, 2014 Share Posted August 6, 2014 Maybe now we can read stories about recruits/actual basketball talk instead of stories about traveling around different cities... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonwich Posted August 6, 2014 Share Posted August 6, 2014 Timmerman almost refused to do any Billiken work in the offseason. One does not "refuse" to do things at the P-D. Tom did what he was told to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thetorch Posted August 6, 2014 Share Posted August 6, 2014 Matter gets a lot of plaudits. He's a good writer. Writing for football is a different animal. Recruiting classes are 5 times as large a the biggest class a basketball team ever brings in. That said he covers offseason basketball pretty much only when the Tigers sign a new player and when one (or several) of their players get arrested. Most of Matter's dearth of stories could also be in the metro section with the rest of the crime blotter. The SLU beat writer just doesn't have the material to write more stories with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bauman Posted August 6, 2014 Share Posted August 6, 2014 I did appreciate the somewhat general article a week or so ago dealing with the freshmen, and I don't expect the PD to have daily (or even close to daily) write-ups on the Billikens at a time when the baseball pennant race is heating up and football is starting practice/exhibition games, BUT.... ....we still have a rising college hoops team which carries the city's name and which has made the NCAA tournament the last 3 years. If I was in charge of doling out the minimal amounts of paper space now included in the daily PD Sports section, I think I could come up with a Billiken basketball story once every 10 days or so. With all the players back on campus, wouldn't it be nice to have a small story, including some player quotes, from Reggie about what he is expecting to do this year. Maybe follow that up in 10-14 days with a similar piece on Tanner and then Mike. How about hearing something from the returning upperclassmen in mid-late Sept. It would be nice to get the perspective from Ash, Austin, Grandy and John. I'm not asking for a lot-just some indication from the only option I have for a daily/local paper, that they recognize that SLU BB has a fair number of followers in the area. This is an opportunity for a new beat writer to try to convince the accounting department that cutting cost (rather than improving quality) is NOT the path to continued existence. I know-it ain't gonna happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RUBillsFan Posted August 6, 2014 Share Posted August 6, 2014 My impression of Timmermann is that he did what he was asked/assigned by the PD in terms of articles and blog posts. He did game previews/recaps, an occasional piece on something other than the games, and then threw the rest of his notes that didn't make the recaps into his "blog". I don't really begrudge him for this. He certainly did a fine job with these tasks. I can't say I would be thrilled to use my own time to go above and beyond what I'm paid to do by my employer. However, an ambitious writer would have had a much more active blog than Timmerman. I can't imagine the PD had a restriction on how many blog posts Tom did. Rather than doing the bare minimum, he could have gone out and done his own stories and put them on the blog. I'd imagine a lot of writers do this. Aside from twitter where he would basically post his game notes, Tom's online presence was sorely lacking. Unfortunately, I doubt Durando is that ambitious writer. Like Timmerman, he's an older guy who has been at the PD for a while. Matter is much better IMO because he is younger and understands more how journalism works nowadays. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cowboy Posted August 6, 2014 Share Posted August 6, 2014 -thanks to TT for his work covering the Bills, I too enjoyed the travel stories and the +/- is another statistic in the game that can give a clue as to what happened, or didn't happen -I have an open mind on Stu, I hope he will travel and be given the space to write more on all things Billikens, all sports, and recruiting -I imagine the Post has concluded that SLU doesn't sell newspapers, the baseball team does and I expect to much lesser extents the football and hockey teams do and next would be state u, imo the quality of the sports page in the Post has really declined - I do like Hummel, the SLU stories and the prep stuff, that's about it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ACE Posted August 6, 2014 Share Posted August 6, 2014 I'd give TT a "C-" for his coverage over the years. I don't think he was bad, but he certainly didn't stick his neck out or break a sweat for us. 'Course, I'd give The SL Post, overall, an "F". Cost cutting mode? What else can they cut? Who would think they would fail, the way they handle the news and editorials favoring one side of the political spectrum 98% of the time. Foo foo failures. You can always count on at least one wing-nut whining about the P-D's politics when talking about the Sports section TT got better over time and predictably coverage of the team improved a great deal over the last three years as the team improved. As others have touched on, TT's complete lack of interest in recruiting was frustrating. Other beat writers cover it. This seems like a good time for a change. Practically a whole new cast of Billikens will be playing this year, so why not a new writer to bring a fresh perspective. Hopefully the new guy will be energized and will really work it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufan13 Posted August 6, 2014 Share Posted August 6, 2014 This is all I can ever think about when talking about how the PD covers SLU. This was the morning after SLU beat St. Joes for their school record 15th straight win. Timmermann had an article, but pretty much the only way to get to it was through his twitter account. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MB73 Posted August 6, 2014 Share Posted August 6, 2014 You can always count on at least one wing-nut whining about the P-D's politics when talking about the Sports section TT got better over time and predictably coverage of the team improved a great deal over the last three years as the team improved. As others have touched on, TT's complete lack of interest in recruiting was frustrating. Other beat writers cover it. This seems like a good time for a change. Practically a whole new cast of Billikens will be playing this year, so why not a new writer to bring a fresh perspective. Hopefully the new guy will be energized and will really work it. Did you take finance, accounting, economics? The point is that the sports section suffers when cost cutting rolls down due to the absolute failure of the paper to present the news in a factual manner. It is outrageously one sided, and has lost a tremendous number of subscriptions because of the biased, propaganda style reporting of the news and editorials. That continued failure and the resulting cutbacks affect other departments such as the sports section. Do you understand? Every few weeks I get a card from them, offering a 64% price reduction for home delivery if I re-subscribe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ACE Posted August 6, 2014 Share Posted August 6, 2014 Did you take finance, accounting, economics? The point is that the sports section suffers when cost cutting rolls down due to the absolute failure of the paper to present the news in a factual manner. It is outrageously one sided, and has lost a tremendous number of subscriptions because of the biased, propaganda style reporting of the news and editorials. That continued failure and the resulting cutbacks affect other departments such as the sports section. Do you understand? Every few weeks I get a card from them, offering a 64% price reduction for home delivery if I re-subscribe. They just need to be more "fair and balanced" There are reasons that go well beyond "biased, propaganda style reporting" which better explain why a lot of daily newspapers are struggling. BTW, didn't the local newspaper more closely aligned with your world view shut down a LONG time ago? Reality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomtimmermann Posted August 6, 2014 Share Posted August 6, 2014 Hey, let's not get off topic here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old guy Posted August 6, 2014 Share Posted August 6, 2014 The issues facing the PD are not unique to the PD or due solely to the articles it publishes. The issue is a lot bigger than content, it is a general trend that is severely impacting ALL the print media. Lots of magazines have closed down, and the valuation of newspapers is way way down. For example the Boston Globe was bought over a decade ago by the NYT at a price around $2B. It got sold by the NYT to new owners for $300+ M plus assumption of debt. This is a hefty loss of value. It is very hard for print media to survive in such a trend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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