The Sentinel goes further down the tubes...haha Groves - was Austin around when you were doing your gig? What do you think of him?
Not Justin but I think I can help. Austin came in when Drew Edwards left in 08ish. I knew him a little. Ok guy with some Tennessee ties somehow. He broke a couple of stories while he was there and I think the staffs got along with him. (Which you could interpret as a negative). For the record, this will be like the 4th or 5th beat writer to blow through football in the last 6 years or so. Either the News Sentinel just knows how to spot talent or... you fill in the blanks.
It seems to be a good gig for Austin...I don't have any issues with him, so wish him the best. I just shake my head at the direction of the Sentinel at times....though the Sports Animal somehow continues to show them up with regard to ineptitude.
Gary Lundy's death was a big blow to the paper. That, and the paper was better when the Journal was still a daily and provided some competition.
The single biggest problem with KNS - and largely Knoxville media as a whole - is that that its a one paper / tv / radio station town. If you don't read it in KNS, see it on Channel 10, or hear it on WIVK (Sports Animal, Newstalk 990), essentially, it didn't happen to 95% of all locals. There is no competition, no need to worry about someone breaking a story ahead of you. And that's just how the media and UTK like it. Fortunately, the newspaper business is quickly going the way of the dodo, and we won't have to worry about any of them, anymore. I just wandered over to GVX a few minutes ago, and I'd say that most (if not all) of their stories are not only crap, but a few days old, to boot. And the latest "premium" schtick is circling it's third drain, even as we speak. Just when they should be should be shoving themselves back into some semblance of relevance by throwing out as much information to as many people as possible, they choose to actually require people to pay for the meager content which they now seem to struggle to even produce. Griff's been there, what, 15 years? What more need to be said, than that?
What do you mean "we don't have to worry about any of them anymore"? Obviously the "physical" newspaper business is going down the tubes, but not the news business as a whole. Where should one turn for news information otherwise? Do you actually go stand outside the courthouse and wait for verdicts or do you depend on someone to do that for you? How do any of us know anything, I wonder, without someone actually going somewhere and reporting to us what actually happened?
VFJ, Surely you didn't take my comments to mean "news", in it's entirety. Just print news media - newspapers first, newsmagazines next, periodicals / journals last. It's too quick and easy to get information from any number of other sources, and long before they even warm up the presses to go to print. Think about this: when was the last time that you visited GVX (just as an example) for the latest and greatest goings on? And if your memory extends that far, when was the last time they actually delivered it? Likely, they only "officially" confirmed what most had reasonably deduced or credibly believed, hours or even days before.
I took you to mean what newspapers try to do is dying. Obviously as a physical institution with a printing press and deadlines... those things are long gone... or going. Books seem to be headed that direction too, except physical books have an artistic and functional quality people still seem to like. I'm talking about the idea of the newspaper process. Story boards, editorial meetings, the copy editing process, the actual "publication" of news, or the art of reporting. Of course someone with a smart phone or twitter account can comment on the first thing that comes to mind and can "break" news. If we want it first certainly those mediums do that most efficiently. And of course, it is called the "news" business for a reason. I hope that with the end of newspaper we still have good reporting -- someone to cover local education, or the courts, or prep sports. Some of the social media is just as effective with some things, like I think national political reporting. But other news items we have a great blind spot to with few people that speak on and follow the narrative. Instead, we get a lot of editorializing about education without good reporting on it, just as an example. As for GVX, I wouldn't go there for breaking news, but that is more a reflection of the current staff and its turnover than it is of newspapers writ large. If a newspaper hires someone with great contacts they could break news with the best of them. Philadelphia Daily News and New York Daily news are just two examples of this.
