Bob Sturm out at The Athletic

[john van brocklin]

Surprising. He was the reason I had a subscription.

I liked him as well....

 

[tyke1doe]

As a newspaper, it's sadly just the way our industry has gone. There are two things that drive the industry: advertisers and subscribers. Both are in short supply. Advertisers have found that there are other ways in the internet age to get their message out rather than having to pay for it in newspapers, news sites, radio, etc., which have increasingly smaller audiences. Subscribers are getting more of their "news" for free on the internet or through social media sites (which is scary). True journalism, where you have a reporter work to try to get to the truth, is dying. Even now, you have such small staffs that you're not able to do much beyond surface reporting. The Times is not immune to that. Some of its wounds may be self-inflicted, but it also has to cut staff to survive in a country where the accuracy of the information is no longer valued as much as it was. We live in a disinformation age, and it's only going to get worse before it gets better.

As a former newspaper reporter who got laid off 10 years ago, I agree with your assessment. It has little (notice, I didn't say nothing) to do with the ideological position of the newspaper and more to do with changing technology and more options for advertisers and subscribers. Now advertisers and subscribers can go where they want and consume information that fits their ideological slant and ideological market. But, it's leading to the fractionalization of our society, and that yet may prove to be dangerous. Very dangerous.

 

[Hoofbite]

I really haven't read anything of his in a while. Not because I dislike him or thought he was off, but just because I don't care enough to invest in following a specific journalist. I liked his independent stuff and breakdowns of formations from back in the day, but never really followed him outside of seeing his content on this site. Best of luck to him.

 

[VaqueroTD]

Jerry Jones doesn't have any control of The Athletic.

You guys really build that dude up

He doesn’t need it. The Cowboys have a better media organization than most websites like The Athletic. I said it.

Seriously, the only national pre-game show I watch more than our own live streaming locally produced show is sometimes NFL on FOX.

I enjoy reading the Cowboys articles. Through all the crap he gets, Spags still entertains me. Some of the Podcasts are great.

And I notice that when the team is stinking, Jerry doesn’t make any of them hold back.

 

[darthseinfeld]

we do? Jerry...Mark Cuban? They built up themselves. They are known to have been Mavericks in their business. Its not outlandish whatsoever in thinking they could have connections at the Athletic.

Ya you guys pretend puppet master that will gun anyone who disparages Dallas. He doesnt need or want to

 

[Qcard]

Bob Sturms Social Media Presence was whack.... algorithm doesn't lie. Tough business but Bob has too many connections to go without for long....Ticket!!

The Athletic is vying for an International Presence.

 

[gimmesix]

As a former newspaper reporter who got laid off 10 years ago, I agree with your assessment. It has little (notice, I didn't say nothing) to do with the ideological position of the newspaper and more to do with changing technology and more options for advertisers and subscribers. Now advertisers and subscribers can go where they want and consume information that fits their ideological slant and ideological market. But, it's leading to the fractionalization of our society, and that yet may prove to be dangerous. Very dangerous.

Right. Some bias/slant does exist at some papers/news agencies, not necessarily as much in the information but how the information is told, but we've gotten to the point where we want stories to be told in a way that fits our bent and we can find someone who will do that. Not saying that that was the issue at all with Sturm because you see it less with sports than other reporting. It most likely was just a case of the Times looking at where it could cut expenses. When our state's largest paper did layoffs (before I took the job I'm at now), it based them on two things: tenure and pay. If you had the lowest amount of tenure, you were gone. If you had the highest pay, you were also gone.

 

[jterrell]

some think that certain journalists and writers don't get axed because team execs may have connections to news outlets, they are either being coy or living under a rock. It happens all the time. The Times ,the last few years is known to operate like this. Seedy. 0 integrity.

ROFL you guys post complete and utter nonsense wayyyy too much.
The Athletic is losing MAJOR money every day.

The guy who started it is local to Dallas and loves Sturm and others locally.
He sold it because it wasn't making actual money.
It is a tough business model to offer nationwide content in a sports landscape where everything is reposted on social media and AI can crank out a story in 10 seconds.
.
The Athletic is not ran toward any political goal. They just want to make money. They are pivoting to more generic high-level content using far less reporters and doubling down on generic EPL and generic NFL content which receives the most views.

I hate they let Sturm go but he will have options as he did with DMN and others before settling at the Athletic.
I feel far sorrier for these journalists who relied on the jobs to eat.

This was a field I actually considered in 1990. I even wrote for free for NFL draft sites for a while.
I was never as good as Sturm but I was also never going to last doing that for free.

Wayyyy too much tilting at windmills.

 

[Toro9]

He'll probably start a podcast if he hasn't already. I know he's been a guest on a few.

 

[MikeB80]

He'll probably start a podcast if he hasn't already. I know he's been a guest on a few.

HIs full time j0b which pays very highly is 0n the aftern00n drive sh0w 0n the ticket in Dallas.

The guy is an eg0 maniac. He will sh0w up s0mewhere pushing his 0pini0ns 0f which he d0es n0t like challenged and thinks are the 0nly 0nes that c0unt.

I w0uldnt be suprised if he sent 0ut th0se fliers real estate pe0ple send 0ut. His picture 0n it telling y0u he kn0ws everything ab0ut sp0rts and can help y0u learn.

writing at a place like the athletic 0r DMN is a h0bby t0 str0ke his large eg0.

 

[CowboysLakerBamaFan]

I heard they laid off 25 writers

 

[speedkilz88]

He'll probably start a podcast if he hasn't already. I know he's been a guest on a few.

It's possible that theticket doesn't want him to.

 

[Pass2Run]

Ehh, never want someone to lose their job but he fell off awhile ago.

He became too consumed in wanting his stance on Dak to be right and said a lot of dumb stuff along the way

You couldn't have said it any better. As a news reporter, the things he said were actually "you're fired" worthy too. I remember saying something along these lines or insinuating how deep his lack of objectivity went when he wrote the piece arguing in favor of trading Dak. He even assured us the idea that Dak couldn't be traded was absurd. Then the joke was on him because Dak has a no trade clause. I don't think he ever ran a correction on that story. Pride is an arrogant thing. lol

 

[Hawkeye0202]

Ehh, never want someone to lose their job but he fell off awhile ago.

He became too consumed in wanting his stance on Dak to be right and said a lot of dumb stuff along the way

You may wanna read his article about Dak about the 2022 playoff loss to the 49ers. He went after him pretty hard for not being more of a leader and taking more ownership of game-situational football rather running plays coz they were called. Of course, I can't post it here but some of his Dak articles may surprise you.

 

[SportsGuru80]

Wow that's shocking...

 

[Kwyn]

He's a former/current Cowboy beat writer........just me, but I enjoy his articles.
BTW....was sure where to put this

I just cancelled my subscription. Bobs articles and the amount of work he puts into his craft deserves to be supported.

I’ll watch for his next landing spot.

 

[Kwyn]

Sturm was good; enjoyed his stuff. Talent like his will find a new home.

As long as they don't cut Dane Brugler and Bruce Feldman, they can keep stealing my money.

Brugler was the other reason I was there but he doesn’t write enough to support my membership.

 

[rambo2]

HIs full time j0b which pays very highly is 0n the aftern00n drive sh0w 0n the ticket in Dallas.

The guy is an eg0 maniac. He will sh0w up s0mewhere pushing his 0pini0ns 0f which he d0es n0t like challenged and thinks are the 0nly 0nes that c0unt.

I w0uldnt be suprised if he sent 0ut th0se fliers real estate pe0ple send 0ut. His picture 0n it telling y0u he kn0ws everything ab0ut sp0rts and can help y0u learn.

writing at a place like the athletic 0r DMN is a h0bby t0 str0ke his large eg0.

0 I see.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

HIs full time j0b which pays very highly is 0n the aftern00n drive sh0w 0n the ticket in Dallas.

The guy is an eg0 maniac. He will sh0w up s0mewhere pushing his 0pini0ns 0f which he d0es n0t like challenged and thinks are the 0nly 0nes that c0unt.

I w0uldnt be suprised if he sent 0ut th0se fliers real estate pe0ple send 0ut. His picture 0n it telling y0u he kn0ws everything ab0ut sp0rts and can help y0u learn.

writing at a place like the athletic 0r DMN is a h0bby t0 str0ke his large eg0.

Given the level of idiocy I hear from call in radio, him being a bit condescending makes sense to me.

 

[Floatyworm]

Ehh, never want someone to lose their job but he fell off awhile ago.

He became too consumed in wanting his stance on Dak to be right and said a lot of dumb stuff along the way

But he wasn't wrong. Dak sucks...and anyone not associated with the Cowboys know it.