what happened to jerry sullivan and bucky gleason

The Buffalo News had a dismal first quarter of 2018. According to an internal memo circulated to the entire News staff, it was their first quarterly loss in more than forty years. Even still, their goal wasn't to gut their sports department editorial staff - or any other section'due south - says management.

The News' sports department had been veteran-laden. Vic Carucci, Jay Skurski, and Marking Gaughan were on the Buffalo Bills beat, and John Vogl and Mike Harrington had the Buffalo Sabres beat covered. They were supplemented past columnists Jerry Sullivan and Bucky Gleason, along with sports enterprise reporter Tim Graham. Other reporters pitched in on a robust staff led past sports editor Josh Barnett and deputy sports editors Bob DiCesare and Keith McShea.

That was one calendar month ago. Today, six of those staffers are no longer in the sports department. According to those onetime members of The Buffalo News, a snowball became an avalanche.

THE DEPARTURES

"I don't know if it jarred them or shocked them or what, but they decided they were going to address this right abroad, and they were going to brand some changes to the paper, which is fine," Gleason told Buffalo Rumblings. "It's important to know that they take their eye on the bottom line all the time. That didn't change when they were making a million dollars a week, and I don't recollect it changed when they started losing money."

Editor Mike Connelly announced at a meeting in front of all the writers and editors at the paper that voluntary buyouts were bachelor to all of them. Over the next couple of weeks, he and Executive Sports Editor Josh Barnett sat downwards with each of the writers and editors in individual meetings. Some were reassigned. Of those who asked for a buyout, some were told yes, and some were told no.

Vogl had his coming together early in the process, and was the first to go when he announced on May 22 that he was leaving the News and taking a buyout.

"I walked away from the newsroom-wide meeting knowing that a buyout was in my best interests," said Vogl. "I didn't see any answers as to how to fix things, and I had good friends who encompass [teams in other markets] where people just lost their jobs at the drop of a chapeau. If I had an opportunity to become paid to exit, I was going to take it. My one-on-i coming together sealed it."

Also on May 22nd, DiCesare was reassigned to a hybrid role, splitting fourth dimension between deputy sports editor duties and writing about high schoolhouse and college sports, co-ordinate to a memo sent to the sports department. McShea was reassigned to the news department every bit a reporter. Within the next week, Sullivan and Gleason were the final ii to have meetings, where they were told their columns were being taken abroad and they were being reassigned.

Gleason was offered Vogl'due south job on the Sabres crush, but ultimately decided to have a buyout on May 25. Sullivan was offered work writing features, just took the buyout on May 29.

"[My meeting] only took about 12 minutes," Sullivan told Buffalo Rumblings. "It was pretty upsetting, and I started to get out. Mike Connelly led into the large news with a three-pronged discussion almost what we needed in the sports department to be better. The bulletin at the terminate was that my vocalisation had become tired, and he didn't employ the words 'bad for business,' but that was conspicuously the bulletin."

"At one point, [Connelly] told me that even I seemed tired with my column, and I jumped on him for that," Sullivan added. "Don't ever put words in my oral fissure."

"I don't want people to think I'm leaving there and I'm bitter and I'chiliad upset," said Gleason. "It was really just a difference in philosophy to me. I didn't similar the management they were going in, and I didn't agree with it. The industry has been in trouble, and I think The News was doing things that were counterproductive to what they were trying to accomplish."

Following the other departures, DiCesare asked for and received a buyout as well, ultimately leaving the newspaper on June 1.

Looking around a gutted sports room was depressing says Graham, who ultimately decided to leave on June xiii. Graham left without a buyout and has since joined The Athletic, who also added Vogl.

"A week earlier, if you would take told me that this was going to happen and it would include me walking out the door, I would have laughed, because there was no feeling [this shakeup was coming]," said DiCesare.

In a sentiment shared past many of the departed members of The Buffalo News, there was a feeling of uncertainty about the plan. Where were these moves sending the paper? Why were they moving on and then quickly?

"I was paying attention to what was going on at that place, and I certainly didn't expect this," said Gleason. "Then they started going in a management that I didn't especially agree with, but that's been going on for some time. I think in these situations, you lot start to worry about 'where is this whole thing going?' and the general approach. What's the accomplishment? What's the finish game?"

"How does this make united states any ameliorate?" asked DiCesare, who began his career interning at The Buffalo News 36 years ago. "Why would we allow this guy walk out the door, when we have to fill the position, when we know he's uncommonly good at what he does? At that place was no terminate game. At that place was no answer to that."

"When you started asking those questions and you lot don't really have an answer to that, then they are going in a different direction than I am, and I don't recollect I can be a function of this," said Gleason.

DiCesare said he came to a similar conclusion. Gleason and Sullivan ranked amid the best-read writers for the newspaper'south website each week, based on metrics that DiCesare could admission.

"This is insane. If these guys are all walking out the door, I can't get back in in that location," said DiCesare. "These are some of my all-time friends. Nosotros've been colleagues for a long time."

"The only regret I have about the buyout is I wasn't the commencement overall to go information technology," said Vogl, noting another person from the newsroom requested it first.

But a mass exodus wasn't the plan. Each private member of the staff came to their position independently, they say. Feeling of sadness and irritation were prevalent. None believed in the new direction management was taking. Having worked together for ii decades or more than in some cases, the sentiment and connection among the group had to have played some office, even if it wasn't the only role.

"I was surprised [then many sports section writers took buyouts]," said Connelly. "We made a voluntary buyout offer to every reporter and columnist in the newsroom - news, sports, and features. When you do voluntary buyouts, y'all never know who is going to enhance their hand. I was surprised by both who in sports, and the number of people in sports."

THE BN BLITZ

In February of 2017, sports editor Lisa Wilson left The Buffalo News to take a new task at ESPN'due south The Undefeated. During her absence, deputy sports managing director Keith McShea was acting sports director until September, at which point Josh Barnett was hired. During the span between permanent sports editors, The News implemented a new venture called BN Blitz.

For $two.99 a calendar month, BN Blitz subscribers had admission to all Buffalo Bills content published by the full-time staff members at The Buffalo News, plus admission to an assortment of online-but content from function-time, not-union writers. They developed a mobile app, likewise. It was a way to enhance their coverage to include analytics and advanced metrics, stories of fandom, and other things that the News had never covered before - but it was likewise supposed to generate revenue.

While some members of the sports department were brought in on the process chop-chop, several others were left in the dark, and didn't know the new service was coming until an August two, 2017 meeting and memo.

From the start, BN Rush was a disaster, say the recently-departed writers. There were login problems, issues that needed to exist addressed past the Newspaper Guild, and an incredibly low subscription base.

"There were some people trying to pump the brakes. They just went manner likewise fast," said Vogl.

"It was kind of sprung on the states," said Graham. "That's what created my first fleck of angst on the future of The Buffalo News. When they announced how the BN Blitz was how we were going to become, and that it was necessary and had to succeed. Information technology had been in the works for a long fourth dimension, but they wouldn't tell usa about it. Information technology was just a gloom and doom meeting."

While Connelly says that naturally some folks would exist more involved and some less, management didn't accomplish out to the members of their department for suggestions on people to hire — or fifty-fifty what types of coverage was going to be behind the paywall. In fact, some new writers were in place and creating content more than than a month before they told the staff at large.

"They didn't address it with the writers alee of time," co-ordinate to Graham. "What they felt was expert content, how much we were going to amass. It caught us all unawares. It upset a lot of people because they crammed information technology downwards our throats. I recollect if they had given u.s. some input, we all would accept taken some buying and rode together. When they say 'Here it is; we're doing this,' and they rolled it out with all the mistakes and the login bug, it was aggravating."

"We're running a Bills site now," said Sullivan. "It'due south non a newspaper we're talking about. Information technology'southward an online production specifically geared toward the Bills, which past its very nature becomes a more of a fan site."

With numerous local and national outlets covering the Buffalo Bills, equally well as many more independent online-but endeavors, there was already so much free content bachelor that consumers stayed abroad from the BN Blitz in droves. Despite lofty expectations, the BN Rush pulled in between 3,000 and 4,000 monthly subscriptions, according to sources.

"If they were going to roll out a pay-to-read app, it should have been a Sabres app, basically because there is less coverage," says Vogl. "ESPN doesn't cover [hockey]. The merely ones on the road are WGR 550 and The Buffalo News. People want improve content."

Traffic wasn't the but problem. With not-union members writing online-only articles on their own, there were times when the Guild and direction butted heads over what had to be done by Guild members, and what could be washed past the online-only writers on spec. Graham says they doubled up on occasion — when a Guild member and a non-Club member would write the same article — which violated contract terms.

"Our consequence as a marriage was if these people are going to do all this work, hire them. Don't only use them one-half-assed," says Graham, who adds there was no animosity toward the independent writers. "We butted heads during the season because they waited until the terminal minute to spring it on united states of america, and we had things to work through as the flavor was going on, and as a new sports editor was trying to get some ground. It was chaos."

Editing the new content was a problem, besides. The digital content and the print content were on 2 different platforms, says DiCesare, who called it "an absolute failure". If he was going to read or edit pieces for BN Blitz, he had to manually move them from 1 platform to some other.

"BN Blitz was our get-go footstep taking a sub-segment of content and see if we tin can make it more special, and build a split up subscriber base," says Connelly of the endeavor. "I think what we're trying to figure out, in an age where the whole business has shifted from advertisers paying for the newsroom. Traditionally, advertising was 75 to fourscore percent of the revenue for a newspaper company. We're changing to a world where readers supply a much larger share of the revenue. In that world, one of the things we are learning is what was expert plenty to be the best coverage provider isn't necessarily what it takes to get somebody to say, 'This is and so cool I'm going to pay for information technology.' How do we build on our strengths so that nosotros are and then cool that tens of thousands of people say, 'That's valuable plenty that I'll pay for that'?"

"I remember looking at [Kimberley Martin, who was in her starting time coming together since joining the newspaper] and maxim, 'Welcome to The Buffalo News!'" says Graham. "This nervous laughter erupted in the room. Everybody was looking at each other sideways, maxim 'What is this?' For the first time in my career at The Buffalo News I thought to myself, 'I'one thousand not going to retire from here.' My decision to leave the newspaper probably dates dorsum to that. Information technology's when I started thinking, 'I've got to look for other options.'"

COLUMNISTS AND COMMENTARY

During the meetings last calendar month, Sullivan and Gleason both had their columns pulled past management. It was a shock to them and the entire department.

"I didn't know it was going to that extreme," said DiCesare. "I thought it was going to be, 'Permit's be more judicious in our commentary.' The idea that they would just pull them away shocked me, and it obviously shocked both of them."

"[My meeting] got heated, then they told me they were taking away my cavalcade, and I just sat there. Then I got up and left," said Sullivan of that twenty-four hours. "It was a quick meeting. Information technology was a bombshell. I had been warned that they were going to suggest that my voice was hurting the business. That we were driving subscribers away."

"My big thing was they're going to reassign me to that and have abroad my column. What's the reason they're taking away my cavalcade when I know it's one of the things that people are reading?" asked Gleason, who noted that he loved roofing the hockey beat but decided to go out anyhow.

A consulting house had taken a survey and adamant a number of people - Sullivan claims 200 of the respondents - would never subscribe to The Buffalo News if he and Gleason stayed on as columnists.

"Mike Connelly promised 100,000 Blitzes, and they sold 3 to iv thousand. In that location needs to be a reason. They got their reason," says Sullivan. "This is their answer. This is their business model. Sounds pretty desperate to me."

Connelly denies promising 100,000 subscriptions. The Buffalo News would need 83,000 total digital subscriptions to pay for their newsroom, according to a memo distributed to staff.

He says they didn't go into the BN Rush model with a programme for how many subscriptions they would sell because the business model could be changed relatively quickly.

"We would figure out very apace what worked and what didn't," said Connelly, citing digital page view numbers equally an example. "It didn't feel very high stakes considering you can ramp something upwards rapidly, and y'all tin can ramp something downwardly overnight."

That type of short-term adjustment is commonplace in digital media, simply not common in the newspaper manufacture. That may accept been what rubbed some writers the wrong way.

"I thought they were starting to lose their way as a paper and condign more of a business," said Gleason of the motivation behind the moves.

No one had told Gleason or Sullivan (or anyone else nosotros spoke with) to lighten up their criticism or take information technology easier on the 2 big local sports teams. Direction and the writers were all clear on that.

"There were times I thought we could be more elevated in our criticism," DiCesare said. "That we should have the high road. Which isn't to say y'all tin can't be disquisitional - you certainly can be - and that's the job as a columnist. But I think in that location are times that instead of just being gratuitous, we look at them and say, "Is that really necessary?" Is there an unabridged column here? And so permit'south practice the column, and if there's not, and so allow'due south eliminate the line."

Connelly, who has worked in the manufacture for 35 years, says there is always pressure and conversations from the subjects they embrace and that he and all journalists heed, but they don't let it modify their coverage. Simply considering no ane said anything doesn't mean in that location wasn't pressure — direct or indirect — from the company that owns both teams.

"As I understand it, The News lost $250,000 worth of business with the Pegulas at ane bespeak. I heard information technology was Sabres programs. It came to my attention at the time," says Sullivan, referencing Kim and Terry Pegula, the owners of the Bills and Sabres. "I recall i specific major staff meeting, not merely sports merely the whole section, i of the advertising people joked in front of the whole room about Sully costing united states of america that money. I think in that location was a general understanding that it equally negative sports writing that acquired the Pegulas to pull that."

"When at that place are only two teams in town, and they've already pulled accounts for negative sports writing; when in that location are simply two columnists, whether it'south overt or otherwise, there's at least a subliminal desire on the part of the people running the sports department to lighten the bear on," added Sullivan. "It's a business. The biggest business is correct across the street."

That business organization being Pegula Sports and Entertainment, which sits across the intersection from The Buffalo News.

"I try very hard to keep anything most anybody pressuring our coverage away from the writers and editors," says Connelly, saying he didn't remember the specific instance Sullivan cited. "What I would say definitively; nil well-nigh the Pegulas or whatsoever other sports management had anything to do with the buyouts. It'due south unfortunate that anyone might think that."

Connelly says that The News has no current plans to hire new sports columnists at this fourth dimension, only that doesn't mean the newspaper is washed with columnists.

"I think columnists are essential. Nosotros will unquestionably take columns in sports," says Connelly.

"I tin can't imagine sports without commentary. Information technology is a vital, essential, expected office of sports coverage and sports writing," says Connelly. "I think we have a reluctance to bring in someone from outside and anoint them equally the new voice of Buffalo sports. We will go on to have plenty of commentary in what we exercise. Near of our reporters do columns in ane way or another. My expectation is that over time, we will find people where commentary volition exist a bigger office of what they exercise."

Kimberley Martin was hired as a columnist by The Buffalo News in August as they bolstered their coverage effectually the launch of BN Blitz. She says Gleason and Sullivan both helped her forth in the process, as did every member of the sports section and management. As a recent hire from New York Urban center, she took the paper's changes equally simply part of her transition. When she left in Oct, it wasn't for any reason other than because she received an offer from the Washington Postal service, which she says was her dream newspaper.

"Equally someone who was hired equally a columnist by Mike non likewise long ago, that saddens me but it doesn't necessarily surprise me," Martin said via email of the shakeup. "Other outlets accept done the same thing for years. Within a twelvemonth of joining Newsday as a full-time high schoolhouse reporter in 2007, the newspaper purged several general columnists (some damn proficient writers, I might add) in favor of merely keeping a baseball game and football game columnist.

"In general, information technology's devastating to come across what has happened to the once-esteemed position of 'columnist' over the by decade. It'due south the platform nosotros all at one point strived to accomplish, and it was the pinnacle of sportswriting success."

Sullivan echoed those comments, saying The News "admittedly" needs a defended sport columnist - ideally 2, with unlike voices.

Martin expressed reservations most The News' plan to find a new columnist organically: "Readers love great content, and that includes well-informed, well-reasoned, well-reported commentary. Just non every crush author is equipped to practise that. There'due south a certain level of reporting, aggressiveness, curiosity and human relationship-building that is necessary to be one of the best on your beat. Columnists should also have those same skills — only they also need to exist able to write well and provide insight and context in their commentary. To assume that *all* shell writers can provide a fresh perspective and are capable of articulating it well is a mistake. The two positions are very distinct and the skill sets required aren't transferable betwixt job descriptions."

THE Athletic STRIKES

With turmoil at The Buffalo News, the editorial staff members at The Able-bodied were waiting. Vogl was the first sports staffer to get when he made his announcement on May 22. Three days later, he had his conference telephone call with management at The Athletic.

"The Athletic was truly not on my radar when I took the buyout. I knew that they were probably coming, but I was planning on taking the summer off," says Vogl.

Memorial Twenty-four hour period weekend wasn't only for negotiating with Vogl; it was during this timeframe that editors had conversations with multiple people who would somewhen exist hired by The Able-bodied, including Graham, who was notwithstanding writing for The Buffalo News at the time. The launch date had been set before those conversations took place, says Graham, who told The News he was leaving on June 11.

Josh Rawdin - Buffalo Rumblings

WHAT HAPPENS Next

At the time of publication, all of the vacated jobs remain open, but postings have been placed for the Sabres beat reporter job (vacated by Vogl and turned downwardly by Gleason), the sports enterprise reporter job (which Graham walked away from), and the deputy sports editor job (left vacant when DiCesare departed). When those positions are filled, the department will still take lost two columnists and a deputy sports editor from where they stood a month ago. Connelly sided with Barnett, who wanted ane deputy sports editor and one nighttime sports editor. The News besides posted a job for a high school and higher sports enterprise reporter on June 21st, the part DiCesare was scheduled to encompass. Total-timers Miguel Rodriguez (loftier school/higher) and Amy Moritz (Sabres, Bisons, and running) remain in place.

Barnett doesn't think his Bills coverage volition be greatly impacted, noting all three beat out reporters will stay in place. With Mike Harrington staying on and a new Sabres reporter forthcoming, the corporeality of hockey coverage is expected to stay the same, likewise.

"Vic Carucci, Jay Skurski and Marking Gaughan bring years of experience, knowledge and insight to the crush," said Barnett via electronic mail. "Our new sports trending enterprise reporter will have a significant role in Bills coverage also by digging deeper into the breaking news and identifying larger trends. We expect to use several other reporters and contributors in Bills coverage as well in different ways than in the past."

Barnett mentioned the multi-function series Graham wrote on Josh Allen, also as recent interviews with Tre'Davious White, Brian Daboll, and Jeremy Kerley, every bit examples of how The News squad is drilling downwards this offseason.

Carucci made it articulate that The News planned on keeping him around as a central part of its coverage plans, too.

"As staffers left the sports department, management reiterated that it wanted me to stay and exist a part of our efforts to improve BN Rush and meet the challenges of facing a new competitor, which is something I truly welcome," said Carucci in an e-mail. "The News went to a higher place and beyond in offering an opportunity for me to return in 2014 after leaving to spend sixteen-plus years with NFL.com and the Cleveland Browns. I thoroughly enjoyed those professional opportunities. But what The News did was make it feasible for my wife and I to no longer have to do the Cleveland-Buffalo commuting that grew tedious, and be able to be with our children and grandchildren on a more than regular ground. That is a meaning factor in my desire to desire to remain a part of The News' connected evolution in the digital space."

"We're in the middle of a great disruption," notes Connelly. "The disruption is forcing united states of america all to rethink the business model, only it doesn't modify our values, or our delivery to insightful, aggressive news coverage - merely it does mean taking a hard look at what we stop doing, what nosotros practise differently, and what new things we do."

"Nosotros have sent more than staff to route games than whatsoever other outlet for years," adds Barnett. "We are committed to unmatched coverage of the Bills and Sabres – at abode and on the road."

Does more necessarily mean better?

"Times are tough for newspapers, simply they kept that band together for a long fourth dimension," said an anonymous Buffalo News contributor, who likewise noted that morale at the outlet has taken a hit. "Pound for pound, that was one of the best staffs in the country. But y'all've got to remember, many of the departures in the sports department weren't forced. The News did non want to lose Bucky, Sully, Vogl and Tim. But they looked at how things were going, and decided information technology was an piece of cake time to spring ship."

And just how volition this impact the civilisation at the paper?

"Y'all can't have this many people leave the newsroom flooring and not accept a morale problem, merely if there is a silver lining here, it is that there are jobs posted and there are positions that are existence filled here, in item in sports," said Buffalo Newspaper Guild President Sandra Tan. "The Guild'south indicate of view is we want the best people to be hired as quickly as possible."

"Covering sports has always been a top priority in this newsroom, so it'south very troubling that we've had this many departures in such a short flow of fourth dimension," added Tan. "The folks who are leaving are taking decades of feel. They are some of our best writers."

With the changes to the manufacture, Connelly wants staff members who are willing to alter with the times. It's why he accepted so many buyouts.

"One of the things that people are really committed to is adapting to see these challenges," said Connelly. "One of the big tests for me was that everybody be all-in. This is hard ... If annihilation, there will be more reporting. I'm a strong believer in reporting. Reporting kills all ills."

Left to right: Bob DiCesare, Jerry Sullivan, Bucky Gleason, John Vogl, and Tim Graham in 2006

[Editor's note: Nosotros incorrectly identified the nighttime sports editor as a deputy editor in the initial publication of this slice. There were two deputy sports editors nether previous sports editor Lisa Wilson plus the nighttime editor. Under Josh Barnett there is now one deputy sports editor plus one dark editor. Former deputy sports Keith McShea is a reporter in the news section.]

[Editor's note: Nosotros added the names of the two total-time sports reporters not previously mentioned in the piece, Miguel Rodriguez and Amy Moritz. Neither accepted buyouts nor were contacted for this story.]

echevarriaanterevell.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.buffalorumblings.com/2018/6/22/17488972/what-really-happened-buffalo-news-sports-2018-tim-graham-jerry-sullivan-bucky-gleason-john-vogl

Share this post