Michael McCarthy and Tom Weir may be out at USA Today, but their images lives on–at least for now.
Both reporters still are pictured at the top of the Game On! blog. Their biographies, though, have been eliminated.
Weir, meanwhile, has updated his bio on Twitter. It now says:
Used to blog at USA Today/Game On; liberated now
Update: USA Today editor explains why staffers weren’t retained and changes to sports media group. Here’s the link.
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Tom Pedulla had been at USA Today since 1995 and worked with Gannett newspapers for 31 years. So when he had to re-interview for a job he already had, he took it as a good sign that both of them were conducted over the phone.
“I thought they were comfortable with what I was doing,” Pedulla said.
It turns out Pedulla was wrong. Yesterday, Pedulla was among the sports staffers who were let go by USA Today. Others include Michael McCarthy and Tom Weir. The layoffs were part of USA Today restructuring its sports group.
Pedulla was stunned, especially at the timing. As the paper’s horse racing writer since 1998, he was looking forward to covering I’ll Have Another’s bid for the Triple Crown at the upcoming Belmont Stakes.
Pedulla is feeling many emotions. High on the list was his anger at not getting a face-to-face interview. As part of the restructuring, all staffers had to interview for their positions. Pedulla stressed he would have gone to Washington to talk in person to editors.
“If you think someone’s job was in jeopardy, you’d want to do it face-to-face to make the best possible decision,” Pedulla said. “I never got a face-to-face interview to keep a job I had for 31 years.”
Pedulla also learned of his dismissal over the phone yesterday.
“I was told they are looking for reporters who can break stories every day,” Pedulla said.
Again, the timing of that statement felt weird to Pedulla. He also covers the NFL, and the day before editors asked asked if he could reach Tom Brady’s father.
“I have a good relationship with him,” Pedulla said. “I made some calls, and he eventually called me back from Prague (where he was vacation). I got the quotes that the paper needed. If that doesn’t prove I’m an effective reporter, what does?”
Pedulla, 55, realizes everyone at a paper is vulnerable these days. His number came up Wednesday.
“I know it’s a business and they made a business decision,” he said. “I have no choice. They lost a lot of good people. They’re going to be hard to replace.”
Pedulla was heartened that his phone started to ring once the news got out. He will be covering the Belmont for America’s Best Racing site.
“I’ve always written with a lot of passion, and (America’s Best Racing) said that comes through in my writing,” Pedulla said. “It means a lot to me that I’ll still be at the Belmont.”
Pedulla then added: “I’m hoping this will be somebody’s else gain and (USA Today’s) loss.”
ESPN just sent out a release that states:
ESPN has reached an agreement with Major League Eating, in conjunction with Nathan’s Famous, Inc., that provides the network exclusive rights to televise a live, one-hour show of the Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest each year through 2017.
Seriously.
You know why this is a big deal? According to the release:
The event consistently generates powerful ratings and has become a holiday viewing tradition for millions of Americans. Last year’s July 4th telecast set a viewership record with 1.95 million live viewers and nearly nine million viewers total on July 4, including two re-airs.
Seriously? Perhaps ESPN is using the number of people who eat hot dogs on the Fourth? Really, we don’t have anything better to do than watch people gorge themselves with hot dogs?
And here’s my favorite line from the release:
More than twenty-five eating athletes from around the world will compete for the respective Men’s and Women’s July 4thHot Dog Eating World Championship Belts.
Athletes? Yes, these definitely are finely trained athletes.
Coming soon: A 24/7 hot dog eating channel.
Fox Sports Chairman David Hill brought up an interesting notion at the NCTA Convention Wednesday in Boston.
From the Hollywood Reporter:
Hill, the Australian-born visionary who has revolutionized the technology of American sports with everything from the scoreboard box on the screen to new ways to cover the drama of baseball, said “the next big development for all of us is the second-screen experience. I don’t believe that has been explored in terms of potential as it should be. If you look at multi-tasking that is going on, a valid second screen experience (people watching a second screen in addition to the primary screen) – which could be American Idol – is going to be a huge development down the road.”
David, I really don’t need a second screen if it’s going to be used to watch American Idol. And by the way, whatever happened to Picture-in-Picture? Wasn’t that a second screen experience?
Bottom line: Nobody knows for sure what how we’re going to be watching sports in 2025. The execs just know we’re going to be watching, and paying to watch.
On the subject of right fees, there was this passage:
No sports discussion would be complete without some worrying about the rising cost of sports rights. At a panel discussion at the NCTA this week, a Wall Street analyst worried that rights fees were going to put a squeeze on cable to the point it could interfere with their ability to do other things. The Wednesday panelists did not disagree that rights are rising and expensive, but the attitude seemed to be that it is an inevitable part of the value of sports on TV.
“Anybody who thinks they can figure out what rights are going to be worth in 2026 doesn’t really know,” said (ESPN President) Skipper, referring to a recent news story about the sale of some sports rights far into the future. “What we will make a bet on is that the value of sports rights are going to continue to appreciate. We would love it if sports rights would come down, but sports rights are going up because the value of sports rights are going up.”
Hill recalled a CBS executive who in 1977 said sports rights had gone as high as it was possible for them to go and they would not go any higher. What he did not recognize, said Hill, is that “sports rights are the purest example of supply and demand.”
It was a big night for Fox and ESPN at the fifth annual Sports Business Awards in New York, presented by Street and Smith’s Sports Business Daily.
Among the networks, Fox was the biggest winner. It won for Best in Sports Television and Best in Sports Media.
“I consider the standard of production of all of us now to be at the highest point ever,” said Fox Sports Group Chair David Hill. “The sports fan now is better served now than ever before.”
ESPN, though, didn’t walk away empty handed. It won Best in Digital Sports Media and Best in Sports Technology, for WatchESPN.
Here’s a list of all the winners:
| AWARD | WINNER |
| Executive of the Year | NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell |
| Sports Event of the Year | ’12 PGA Tour Humana Challenge |
| Best in Sports Media | Fox Sports |
| Sports League of the Year | MLB |
| Sports Sponsor of the Year | Bridgestone |
| Best in Corporate Consulting, Marketing and Client Services | The Marketing Arm |
| Sports Facility of the Year | Amway Center |
| Best in Sports Television | Fox Sports |
| Lifetime Achievement Award | Paul Tagliabue |
| AD of the Year | Michigan State AD Mark Hollis |
| Best in Property Consulting, Sales and Client Services | IMG |
| Best in Sports Technology | ESPN’s WatchESPN |
| Sports Team of the Year | Boston Bruins |
| Best in Digital Sports Media | ESPN Digital Media |
| Best in Sports Event and Experiential Marketing | MLB/Fan Cave |
| Best in Talent Representation and Management | Wasserman Media Group |
I never was a big auto racing fan, but I always used to watch the Indianapolis 500. I even knew the names of most of the drivers: A.J. Foyt, Bobby and Al Unser, Mario Andretti, Rick Mears, Johnny Rutherford, and one of the great names of all time, Gordon Johncock.
Fast forward, and now about the only thing I know about this year’s Indy 500 is that Danica Patrick won’t be in the field. That says plenty about the state of Indy car racing these days.
ABC will air the race Sunday at 11 a.m. Naturally, Patrick’s name came up during a teleconference this week.
Analyst Eddie Cheever said of Patrick’s absence:
You can tell there’s a difference in the paddock. Danica brought a lot of interest from people that were not really involved in racing. I think she did some amazing things at her time that she spent in IndyCars.
When you’re at the racetrack and you’re watching the Go Daddy car go around the track, it’s doing pretty well right now. So I think from the purely emotional part of being involved in following a car, that team picked up where it left off, and it’s doing very well.
I personally, my daughter follows Danica Patrick, no matter what she’s doing, whether she’s racing here or somewhere else. But there are a lot of very talented drivers in IndyCar, many of which are females that are doing very well, and I think the series will just pick up and keep on going forward.
Actually, Patrick won’t be a complete no-show Sunday, according to producer Rich Feinberg:
In terms of the Danica story, not being there, we will address it. It’s not something we’re going to avoid. If you watch real, real closely to the prerace, you will see a brief cameo appearance in this year’s telecast by Danica, which she was happy to do for us and we think we’ll have some fun with our viewers.
As for race coverage, Feinberg noted as many as 12 cars will be wired with HD camera systems. He said:
If we achieve our goal of 12 cars, that would be 48 onboard cameras, which is a first in terms of volume for us. Additionally some interesting things about those in-car camera systems. For the first time all the cars that have systems will offer our viewers driver shots which we’ve not been able to do in many, many years.
We’re also introducing what we call dual path technology, which allows viewers to see both the driver’s perspective and the driver driving simultaneously at the same time. That technology has never been used in IndyCar racing and we’re excited to debut it at this year’s Indianapolis 500. Additionally we plan on using within the telecast Ultra Hi motion cameras that shoot at a frame rate of one thousand frames per second. This should offer some compelling views for our fans and viewers in ultraslow motion of key moments in the race and on the track. We’ve never used those before as well. A lot of exciting new technology.
Michael McCarthy and Tom Weir were the USA Today staffers who lost their jobs today. Tom Pedulla, USA Today’s horse racing writer, also got the boot. Bad timing for him considering I’ll Have Another will be going for the Triple Crown at the Belmont in a few weeks.
Eric Fisher and John Ourand of Street and Smith’s Sports Business Daily report:
USA Today Sports Media Group has enacted a significant restructuring of its editorial roster that has resulted in the departures of about a dozen veteran staffers of the media outlet, including sports business and media writer Michael McCarthy and “Game On” blogger Tom Weir. Company officials declined to say how many staffers overall were affected in the move. But ultimately, the company’s sports editorial staff is expected to post a net increase, particularly with the arrival later this year of its joint venture with MLBAM. “This process was about redefining and reimagining Sports and the roles within it to create a center of excellence and build a great sports franchise,” said USA Today Sports Media Group President Tom Beusse. “With this new structure, we are now well-positioned to operate in a 24-7 digital environment. This is a major step forward.”
OK, maybe not trillions, but the actual number will feel that way.
NBC announced the following today:
NBCUniversal will provide 5,535 hours of coverage for the 2012 London Olympics across NBC, NBC Sports Network, MSNBC, CNBC, Bravo, Telemundo, NBCOlympics.com, two specialty channels, and the first-ever 3D platform, an unprecedented level that surpasses the coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics by nearly 2,000 hours. It was also announced today that NBC will broadcast 272.5 hours of coverage, the most ever for an Olympic broadcast network, largely attributable to an increase in daytime coverage.
That’s 5,535 hours, or roughly the equivalent of 231 days of Olympics coverage. I’d love to see somebody do a reality show on people trying to watch every hour on the various outlets. Now that would be good TV.
Here are other fun facts from the release.
The 5,535 hours of Olympic coverage are the most ever and surpass Beijing’s coverage (3,600 hours) by nearly 2,000 hours.
NBC will broadcast 272.5 hours of London Olympic coverage over 17 days, the most extensive coverage ever provided by an Olympic broadcast network, and nearly 50 hours more than the 225 hours for Beijing in 2008.
The 5,535 hours more than double the total amount of coverage of every Summer Games combined prior to Beijing (2,562 hours from 1960 Rome on CBS to 2004 Athens on NBC).
NBCUniversal will average 291 hours of coverage per day over London’s 19 days (including two days of soccer competition prior to the Opening Ceremony).
The chairman weighs in:
“We are only able to provide this level of coverage to U.S. viewers because of the unmatched array of NBCUniversal assets,” said Mark Lazarus, Chairman, NBC Sports Group. “Whether on television or online, on broadcast or cable, in English or in Spanish, NBCUniversal has the London Olympics covered, providing the American viewer with more choices than ever to watch the Games.”
My translation: Our butts are on the line here, so you better watch.
It’s just a matter of time before Mike Milbury and Jeremy Roenick drop the gloves and start brawling during one of their NHL studio segments on NBC Sports Network.
Last night, they got into a heated debate about the Kings’ Dustin Brown’s hit on Phoenix’s Michal Rozsival. Roenick thought it was a clean blow; Milbury not so much.
At around the 1:40 mark, things really get heated.
What registers as long-form journalism these days are back-to-back 140-character tweets.
So it was refreshing, if not stunning, to see the New York Times publish a 6,500-word story on the last run of ultra marathoner Micah True Monday. Besides the incredible length, the paper displayed Barry Bearak’s piece over the first five pages of its Times Monday sports section. A report on the Rangers-Devils series did not appear until page 8.
The story was fascinating. True, a truly mystical character, was the subject of Christopher McDougall’s best-selling book Born to Run.
Here’s the link and be sure to check out the audio version read by Jay O. Sanders.
However, allot some time. We’re talking five pages of newspaper type here. I printed the story off the link and it was 17 pages.
And the subject wasn’t Derek Jeter or new New York Jet Tim Tebow.
In this day and age, what makes the Times think people will stick with a 6,500-word story? I did a Q/A with Times deputy sports editor Jason Stallman.
What went into your decision to devote this kind of space for the story, and then to run it on five open pages before getting to nut-and-bolts Yankees, Rangers, Mets coverage?
It’s an exceptional story. The type of thing that comes along once a year, if that. So we wanted to give it special treatment.
Did you ever consider breaking up the story and running it as a series?
Yes, we did talk about that. In the end, we figured that breaking it up might only confuse or frustrate readers who came to the story after the first day. They’d have to go back and catch up. Also, I think the story is incredibly powerful when read straight through.
What kind of reaction did you get from readers and your fellow sports editors? Do you think people read it?
There’s been quite a bit of response, and all of it overwhelmingly positive — from colleagues in the newsroom and readers around the world. The bottom line is that people appreciate a good story well told. Perhaps running it in full on one day turned off some readers. I don’t know. But the folks who bought in sure did get a treat. We’re able to monitor in real time how people are engaging with individual articles on our web site. Throughout the day on Monday, this piece was attracting a staggering number of readers. Far more than the norm.
Is this a statement that long-form journalism isn’t dead?
No, it’s not any kind of statement, other than that Barry Bearak is “Michael, Magic and Bird, all rolled in one.”