I don’t know what’s going on with The Star’s Sports Department, but I’ve been seeing some troubling signs.
For years, the sports page has been voted one of the 10 best in the country, and until the sports section shrank, along with the rest of the paper, it probably deserved that placement.
But recently, in addition to the section’s significant reduction in size, incidents of lazy editing have cropped up.
As we all know, McClatchy, The Star’s owner, has staked its future on switching readers from print to digital, so it’s no surprise that less attention is being paid to the printed sports pages — just as emphasis on the news side has shifted from print to digital.
But, man, I’ve seen two things just within the last week that simply would not have been tolerated several years ago.
Example No. 1
The “centerpiece” story in today’s edition (centerpiece being a featured story accompanied by a large photo) was about Steve Spagnuolo, whom the Chiefs last week hired as defensive coordinator. Here’s the photo that ran with a column by Vahe Gregorian…
But just last Friday, the sports page ran the same photo — cropped a little tighter — along with Blair Kerkhoff’s story about Spagnuolo being hired. Here’s that photo…
Within four consecutive editions, the editors twice led the section with the same photo. That is just plain laziness and a disservice to readers. Dozens of Spagnuolo photos available at the touch of a mouse on Google. Here’s one of many photos The Star could have used, just to mix it up a bit…
Hey, it’s really cold outside today, and using one of him all bundled up would have been very appropriate!
**
Example No. 2
Last Wednesday, the editors put this headline on a story about four former Major League Baseball players being voted into the Hall of Fame.
Because of the combination of his last name and the accompanying photo, I knew the “Rivera” in the headline referred to former Yankees’ closer Mariano Rivera.
But the abrupt switch from one player’s last name to two nicknames and one first name left me confused and clueless.
We have a former “Moose” of our own, of course, in Mike Moustakas. I knew he wasn’t the subject of the headline, however, because he’s still playing and thus not eligible for the “HOF.”
The editors should have realized Moustakas would have popped into many readers’ minds, and for that reason alone, the headline should have been dismissed out of hand. The “Moose” the headline referred to, then, is Mike Mussina, a former pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles and the Yankees.
The “Edgar” in the headline is Edgar Martinez, who played for the Seattle Mariners. And “Doc” is Roy Halladay, who pitched for the Philadelphia Phillies and Toronto Blue Jays. (He died in a 2017 plane crash.)
Now, it’s true that the first paragraph of the story clearly states who these players are, but headlines are not supposed to confuse; they are supposed to capture the gist of stories and draw the readers in. This headline drew readers in for the wrong reason: It was misleading and goofy.
Using the same number of characters, the editors could have had a straightforward, informative headline like, “Rivera, Halladay and two others voted to Hall of Fame.”
**
In sum, there is no excuse for the redundancy in the Spagnuolo photos, and someone should have nixed the “Doc, Edgar, Moose” headline.
Rosen
For these offenses, the buck stops with sports editor Jeff Rosen, who has held the job the last eight years. Jeff needs to pull his cap down a bit tighter and keep his eye on the ball.
If the sports section is in trouble, they may be really sucking wind. Jim Denning just sued The Star and Steve Rose for libel today. So they have that going for them also.
KCUR is reporting that Steve Rose has resigned from The Star.
This Steve Rose story is just plain bizarre. How could Rose write a column that critical of a politician, but then not be better prepared to defend it when he is challenged?
Maybe we will learn more as the days pass. Or maybe the Star will say very little as they try to settle this with Denning. In any event, this is pretty embarrassing for the Star and their editorial section.
How about the Sunday paper that reported postage stamps had been raised to 55 cents and the last chance to buy them for 50 cents was Saturday, the day before ?
I saw that, Don. Pitiful. Sure, there are other places I could have gotten that information, but I didn’t come across that information. When I saw the story, I was irritated because I would have bought a roll. Great point…
Well – I called to cancel my subscription on Thursday, Jan 17. I received two papers both Saturday and Sunday (Jan 19/20) and have received one each day since … too bad they weren’t that deliberate and reliable when I did want my paper.
You’ve got to be careful about this. I’ve talked to others who cancelled and kept getting it and said later they got billed for the papers they didn’t want. (It can get nasty.)
Call circulation and reinforce your wishes, and if you know your carrier’s name and how to contact him/her, let him know.
Based on the sports section the past few days, it appears Lynn Worthy has been reassigned from the Chiefs to the Royals beat. He has had an article virtually everyday on the Royals which is more than when we saw him writing about the Chiefs.
On the Steve Rose story, using part-time columnists is often very problematic. The editors don’t have as much control and contact as they do over full-time employees. Rose literally “mailed it in” every week. He may have had little contact with Colleen McCain Nelson, editorial page editor. Big mistake on the ed board’s part.
Back in 2016 when the Star published a highly controversial guest column on rape, Tony Berg quickly removed the column from the Star’s website and published an apology. I noticed a few minutes ago that Rose’s column seems to have been pulled online. I wonder if any sort of statement will be coming from Berg or Colleen Nelson. I also wonder if any Star employees will face some sort of disciplinary action.
Rose has resigned and I understand Mary Sanchez was let go a couple of weeks ago.
Also, as a guest columnist, Rich Hood, or in his absence, whoever was in charge, personally vetted my column. I also insisted on coming in and sitting down with the copy editor to work with them while they put the column on the page. I once received notice from the legal staff that my columns were too factual and that’s sort of what got Rose in trouble. He asserted that he had met with Denning and no such meeting had taken place..
Wow..thank God for Rick Hummel & Derrick Gould covering the Cardinals and Tom Timmerman covering the Blues. Sounds as if the Post-Dispatch sports section is holding it’s own. Football coverage is wire service and nobody cares.
Thanks, Gus…I’m going to root for the Patriots Sunday because Kroenke moved the Rams out of St. Louis.
Yeah Kroenke ranks right up there. He beat out Bill Bidwell as the most hated NFL owner.
I know I’m late to the party on this, but different people design and edit the content on the sports pages every day through their centralized print operation. The designers and editors who do the work could be anywhere in the country. It would be rare for a designer to look back and check if a photo had been used a few days before; in fact it probably never happens.
Since print is being de-emphasized at McClatchy, maybe that’s why this happened. Rosen, et al, aren’t paying much attention to print anymore.
Nobody is.