Like a Broken Record (If You Know What That Is)

Like a Broken Record (If You Know What That Is)

 

Today, one day before Opening Day, I opened the Tribune sports’ section, and guess what?  The Bears were on page one again, with the entire back page—no ads to reduce coverage, mind you—devoted to news of the monsters.  And the White Sox, you ask?  They got two stories and a recap, all in one column on page five.  One of the stores was from the AP.

 

But, Doug, you might advise, get with the electronic age.  OK, so I went online and found pretty much the exact same thing.  I like how stories relate to one another on the printed page; layout is, or was, both an art and a necessity in newspaper production.  So, I went to the digital version of the paper first, and guess what?  The digital sports’ section was an exact copy of my morning paper.  The Sox were again relegated to page five.

 

Hardcopy or electronic, the Tribune has stopped providing box scores for all NHL and NBA games.  Today, it was one hockey and two basketball box scores; the Bulls made the cut but not the Hawks.  As for the transactions’ section, forget it.  The Tribune would have you believe nobody in professional sports is being signed, cut or traded.  I’m talking both the hardcopy and electronic versions, here.

 

Now, I could go to the latest sports’ stories and just start scrolling down.  (Is there anything sadder in life than to see human beings scrolling, scrolling with index finger to screen?)  And I will get something not in the paper, yet.  My experience has been that stories are always electronic and hardcopy, never one or the other.  All I’m doing by going online is reading tomorrow’s morning edition early.  Big deal.

No box scores, no transactions' section, no long-term future that I can see.