Final November, The Instances named Steven Ginsberg, a high editor at The Washington Put up, the manager editor of The Athletic. In June, The Athletic laid off almost 20 reporters and moved greater than 20 others to new jobs. Its leaders stated the outlet would now not assign at the least one beat reporter to every sports activities staff.
The acquisition of The Athletic had raised questions on the way forward for The Instances’s sports activities division, which has included quite a few distinguished journalists. The Sports activities of The Instances column was began by John Kieran in 1927, and would later embrace a distinguished group of writers, together with Robert Lipsyte, William Rhoden, Harvey Araton, George Vecsey and Ira Berkow.
Three Sports activities of The Instances columnists, Arthur Daley, Pink Smith and Dave Anderson, have gained Pulitzer Prizes for his or her sports activities writing. One other sports activities reporter, John Department, gained a Pulitzer Prize in 2013 for his function on a lethal avalanche in Washington State, and Josh Haner gained the function pictures prize in 2014 for documenting the restoration of a survivor of the Boston Marathon bombing.
Lately, with the rise of digital media, The Instances’s sports activities division started to downsize, simply as many different nationwide and native newspapers did. The part misplaced its stand-alone day by day print part. Not each native staff was assigned a beat reporter. Field scores disappeared.
On Sunday, a gaggle of almost 30 members of The Instances’s sports activities desk despatched a letter to Mr. Kahn and A.G. Sulzberger, the writer of The Instances, chastising the corporate for leaving its sports activities employees “twisting within the wind” for the reason that buy of The Athletic.
Mr. Kahn and different members of The Instances’s masthead met with the sports activities desk on Monday. The assembly was contentious, in accordance with two individuals who had been current, with sports activities reporters urgent Mr. Kahn on why he had not stored them extra knowledgeable of the corporate’s plans. Mr. Kahn stated they had been being “unfair” to say the masthead had waited to share the total plan and that the group had labored exhausting to seek out jobs for everybody, the 2 folks stated.
In an electronic mail to the corporate on Monday, Mr. Sulzberger and Meredith Kopit Levien, The Instances’s chief govt, wrote, “Although we all know this determination will probably be disappointing to some, we consider it’s the proper one for readers.”