Sad day. Tim Graham out at Buffalo News

[May Day 10]

Regardless, this is sad.  It is the end of an era.  The Buffalo News is in its death throes.  This Sports Section has always been a large piece of my sports fan experience, back to when one Sabres column in July would be like water in a desert and I would read it 3 times.  The smell of the newspaper is burned in memory.  Paper routes, etc.  I also know various people who work there who are very worried about their own employment.

 

I know its changed.  I still read the columns in TBN when my attention was brought to it.  Sometimes I agreed, sometimes I didn't.  It was there though and we had coverage from a local media outlet.  Yes, they have been negative, but its tough to argue that they haven't been reflective of the perpetual state of these teams.  I recall many positive columns written in the Sabres' brief 'glory days' in the modern era October of '05 to May of '07. 

 

Graham would be tasked with digging deeper.  Whether its his work with Darryl Talley, or his deep-dive into Josh Allen.  I think he is an excellent writer and we are poorer if we lose him to a different city or national.  His radio show was also a great breath of air from WGR.  They would often have Bucky and Sully on and it wasnt a Sabres/Bills bash session.  They were very fair.  Also had Fairburn, Rodak, Wawrow, etc.  

 

These things were probably inevitable.  The Buffalo News has had backwards management that failed to adapt effectively in a changing world.  

 

 

[Lurker]

9 minutes ago, May Day 10 said:

The Buffalo News is in its death throes. 

 

The BN isn't going anywhere soon.   The stable of writers who just left will be replaced with a younger, hungrier, more motivated (and yes, cheaper) new crew.   Every publication need to refresh its product periodically and I'm looking forward to what rolls out in the months ahead...  

[corta765]

21 hours ago, Kelly the Dog said:

That actually sucks. Tim was and is a very good sportswriter. People here conflate his twitter and TSW persona with his professional skills.

 

I read his work and respected it highly. However your twitter/social presence does have an effect on how your viewed etc.. Personally I could separate the two and at times agreed with TG at others disagreed. At the same point his tweets on Bennett when a charity event itself was being run certainly crossed a professional line for someone in his spot IMO. In today's climate and environment where outrage is everyone and your watched on your every move he may have crossed one too many lines on it. I actually think he is better off doing work outside of TBN he had great work before rejoining anyway.

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

2 hours ago, BeginnersMind said:

Except for readers conflating clickbait with quality. Make any topic into a “Top 5” list and it would get more views than Woodward and Bernstein breaking Watergate. 

Sad, but true.  We have a culture now where 'tl,dr' is considered an acceptable response and reaction to journalism, and a digital newspaper where the 'Smiles At' galleries are looked upon as news.

[SDS]

So, this topic has run its course... It is hard to read the same inaccurate accounts over and over.

 

To summarize:

 

- The Buffalo News did not layoff Tim Graham in a cost savings measure. Tim left by his choice, with no payout.

- BN did not layoff John Vogl (he asked to leave) nor Jerry Sullivan (he was reassigned and then he asked to leave). 

- Given Tim's reaction to the news room departures, his unfortunate tweet regarding Vic (and later deletion), and his sudden departure - it is clear there was some behind the scenes acrimony.

- BN is hiring new people for these positions. Anywhere from 3-6 is what I understand. They may do well. They may fall flat on their faces. Time will tell.