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Shakeup on the Inquirer sports desk: Cohen out
The Web site for the award-winning alternative weekly, the Philadelphia City Paper.
Shakeup on the Inquirer sports desk: Cohen out
Here is a little inside baseball — admittedly, the least appropriate use of that term ever: According to sources inside the Inquirer newsroom, one of the executives taken down in the Inquirer takeover was Jim Cohen, the now former sports editor.
Word is Cohen was let go sometime this morning, along with Bill Marimow and four other editors whose names have, to my knowledge, yet to surface. The move was not expected.
I am far from the guy to eulogize Cohen, but any idea that he was let go for performance reasons is flat wrong. His desk had a decree to modernize, branch-out over platforms and become more ânew-media friendly.â Cohen was both more conscious of, and better at this, than most. He brought in young writers, cut down game stories, beefed up notes, and pressed for video clips on the website (not the auto-tune, calm down). As for the Bleacher Report fiasco, he made it very, very clear that he had nothing to do with the deal, (EASILY the quickest he ever got back to one of my questions) which is obviously to his credit.
Long story short: This was about money, and thanks to a deal with the guild that grants all Inky reporters reprieve from layoffs for one year, Cohen was one of the few guys who the new management could ax.
This is bad news for everyone in media, but none more than the current Inky staff. There are more than a handful of writers who view the firing as an aggressive "fuck you" coming down from on high, and, I'm speculating here, but I wouldn't be shocked if the turnover at the sports didn't end here.
No word on who, if anyone, the paper is looking at to replace Cohen, but I'm told John Quinn, the current deputy sports editor, will take the chair in the interim. I've reached out to confirm, and will be back with more as it develops.
As a former Inky guy from the late '70s/early '80s, it is astonishing to see daily newspapers suffer to the extent they have been. I actually worked at two papers (Philadelphia Journal, r.i.p., and The Pittsburgh Press, same) whose management teams simply misread the tea leaves. Very sad. The Inquirer's sports section was a decently-readable, borderline top 10 production which covered the four pro teams and college and prep sports pretty well, particularly when compared to those of other cities. Cohen established a good rep at The Milwaukee Journal, following in the steps of Bill Dwyre, now at the L.A. Times. But there is little human element in newspaper management and it's been this way for at least a generation. Look at the once-great Chicago Tribune, which cut down paper size, went to a daily tabloid, and took out some ads of questionable quality under the wondrous watch of double-Michigan Man Sam Zell. Sic semper transit gloriae. Here's hoping somebody grabs the wheel before the good ship Inky sinks in a sea of red ink. -- paul smith NW Indiana (near Chicago)
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