Turning on the AC: Local sports reporters losing numbers game
Perhaps there was no more happening place to be for an area football game than last Friday evening at St. Francis High’s Friedman Field.
The music was blasting, the smell of flame-broiled meats seemed to descend from the heavens and the stadium was overflowing in anticipation of what was supposed to be a CIF Southern Section Division III showdown between Whittier La Serna and St. Francis, a pair of teams that met in two of the last three postseasons.
Game announcer Rick Dinger even noted that La Cañada Flintridge mayor Michael T. Davitt was in attendance.
Had you been on the St. Francis sidelines like Yours Truly and noticed how they give away sideline passes like bottles of Aquafina, then it would have been easy to guess that everyone was at the game.
Perhaps that’s why it was easy to overlook the absence of a shrinking group of people.
As I looked left and right and all around, something became clear. There was only one full-time newspaper reporter at the game: Me.
When I first came to the Los Angeles Times Community News in 2011, such a game would have commanded the attention of multiple newspaper reporters from different outlets.
That’s part of the fun of Friday night football: reporters beating each other to parking spaces and postgame interviews all while watching the same game and yet ending up with different stats.
Despite the friendly rivalry and often thanks to an assist from fellow scribes on a missed play or tackle, coaches were quoted, kids were written about and the community was informed about its local teams.
Though several new facets have been added to journalism, including Twitter, blogging and videos, actual game reporting was always in the mix, until recently.
That Friday night a local newspaper chain laid off one of its last two prep sports writers, a guy who had his name labeled on a spot in the St. Francis parking lot.
The departure is one of many this season that has seen names of Jeff Parenti, Lou Brewster, Dave Thorpe, Steve Virgen, Barry Faulkner and Tony Ciniglio off the pages of local papers and largely not replaced.
Overall, 2017 has been a bloody year for sports reporting, from large layoffs at ESPN to smaller, less-scrutinized moves, such as the Fresno Bee shelving its prep staff in May.
What has transpired is a diminished product and less attention for student-athletes who are as deserving of a write-up as the generations that came before.
Game stories are replaced with scores, while features and previews are bumped in favor of hot takes and know-it-all columns (not this column of course!).
If you’ve read the letters to the editor section of the paper, our community also has its concerns.
Almost monthly a new slew of emails comes in with complaints and questions.
Every year has been more of a challenge than the previous, but I don’t believe the dedication of those still employed has waned.
Now, this isn’t one of those columns asking you to subscribe. I’ll leave the begging to KPCC.
No, all I ask is for a little patience. We’re having to do more with less.
So, if you have a chance to see a local reporter out and about, feel free to say “hello” or even pat them on the back.
We’re a vanishing breed.
