Baseball Writers Face Uncertain Future – WSJ

The Wall Street Journal posted an interesting story entited “Baseball Writers Brace For The End” where they foretell the end of the baseball journalist in the pressbox.

Now, it seems a little overdone to me, but the realities of the market are definitely having an impact. Consider the following:

– The Washington Post and Baltimore Sun will share content so they don’t both have to cover the Orioles and Nationals.

– The Beaver County Times has stopped covering spring training and won’t cover every Pirates road game — primarily due to finances, according to sports editor Ed Rose

– The New York Times spends $6,500 a month during the regular season to have a reporter follow the Yankees on the road. once you add in Spring Training and the playoffs (the Yankees should be so lucky these days), a single baseball reporter can cost the Times more than $50,000 per season on top of his or her salary.

The Dodgers are fortunate to have the L.A. Times and the L.A. Daily News covering them almost continuously (the Dodgers bloggers actually met Ramona Shelburne briefly on our tour of Camelback Ranch) but smaller markets are already seeing the coverage dissipate as newspaper losses mount and staff writers are trimmed in an effort to cut costs.

Will the Dodgers suffer from the current predicament? Not likely. Will baseball suffer long-term effects from this shift in the business of sports writing? Almost certainly.