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JOURNALISM
What Sports Illustrated and Your Sad Local Paper Have In Common
That’s if you even still have a local newspaper
Sports Illustrated and your local newspaper probably have a lot in common: Both have been damaged and maybe even killed off not because nobody wanted to read them but because the money people came in with a knife.
In my 30 years working in the business, I watched this practice destroy countless newspapers large and small — and I saw it destroy the careers of many colleagues and friends, including mine.
I’m not a sports fan, but it sucks any time a quality publication like Sports Illustrated dies or is badly damaged because it’s purchased by an entity that simply sucks money from it.
About 2,500 U.S. newspapers have closed since 2005, the reports. Each of those 2,500 lost newspapers represents destroyed careers and damaged communities.
A common problem
Sports Illustrated suffers from the same problem as many local papers.
explains what happened in Greed Killed Sports Illustrated. It’s a complicated and evolving story I encourage you to read. As the headline suggests, it blames greed and debt — which is why I say Sports…
