Shake up at the shoe shine rag.

[grump]

Jerry Sullivan, Bucky Gleason & John Vogl out in sports dept. Wonder if it’ll hit other depts? How long before it’s reduced to weekly? They were always quick to spend Pegula money for players, coaches, facilities etc. Apparently the Pegulas’ fellow billionaire, Warren (I think taxes should be higher because my money is hidden in charitable trusts) Buffett doesn’t feel that way.

[WNYresident]

Most of what is going on in my opinion is solely based on where advertising dollars are going. This isn't because the paper is one sided or not.

[HipKat]

Whoa! That's major! Sad to see Sully go. I know he's not real well liked but I appreciate him calling it like it is with the Bills and Sabres

[grump]

Whoa! That's major! Sad to see Sully go. I know he's not real well liked but I appreciate him calling it like it is with the Bills and Sabres

Hip, I’m sorry to see Bucky Gleason go because he’s a local yokel who seemed to genuinely care about Buffalo sports. I respect your opinion on Sullivan but he always struck me as one of those “smartest guy in the room” types who ended up frustrated and embittered because he was never able to break out of a dying market into the career he thought he deserved. That said, it guts the sports department and I wonder if other departments will follow.

[grump]

Most of what is going on in my opinion is solely based on where advertising dollars are going. This isn't because the paper is one sided or not.

Agree. But there’s some type of poetic justice in watching that rag squirm after they convinced their workers to vote to put the Courier Express out of business 30 years ago.

[HipKat]

Hip, I’m sorry to see Bucky Gleason go because he’s a local yokel who seemed to genuinely care about Buffalo sports. I respect your opinion on Sullivan but he always struck me as one of those “smartest guy in the room” types who ended up frustrated and embittered because he was never able to break out of a dying market into the career he thought he deserved. That said, it guts the sports department and I wonder if other departments will follow.

I agree with you on Gleason. I love how there's nothing in the News about it.... typical

[grump]

I agree with you on Gleason. I love how there's nothing in the News about it.... typical

I hadn’t thought to look but I’m not surprised.

[leftWNYbecauseofBS]

The BN is in a lot of trouble but it's a bed that they made. For the last 20 years or so they have been telling their readers how much smarter they are (Donn Esmonde) than paying subscribers and how little the understand sports (Sullivan, Harrington, Graham and Gleason) to fans. If that wasn't enough they mixed in calling readers racist (Watson) for good measure. Mix this in with an utterly incompetent digital and development team who couldn't build a website to save their lives and you arrive at where they are today.

It's not like the region hasn't given the BN material to cover. All you need to do is spend 5 minutes reading a comments section or spend the afternoon at a BBQ with someone 3 arms away from the corruption to realize it exists and goes deep. But for all of the political and 'investigative' reporters they have on staff....they just decided not to cover these stories. Maybe they thought too little of their readers or they just never got the last call on the 'old boys club' that hasn't existed since JFK was in office. Who knows.

I do find it funny that one of the top stories on their website Tuesday morning is a recap of the stories they ran over the long weekend. Then a listicle and a gallery of some concert.

[grump]

Leftie, the reason they choose not to cover the open and obvious corruption is fealty to the Democratic Party, wellspring of 99.99% of the corruption in Buffalo, Erie County and NYS. You’re right on about Esmonde, Watson and the sports crew. And, little as I know about website development and so on, even I know a platter of **** when I see it. As for writing stories about their previously published stories this is just in keeping with a media pattern I’ve noticed for years, media members intruding themselves into a story to make it about them. Lyin’ Brian Williams is only the most comically idiotic example.

[sharky]

I think there are a few reasons why that paper is failing.
Papers in general aren't doing as well anymore.
More opinions in their articles than facts. Lack of details in the few cases where the article wasn't an opinion piece disguised as news.
Getting rid of the Disqus comment system. I stopped using their site after that and others likely did too, less page views means less ad revenue. Ch4 did the same and I don't go on their site any more either. In both cases the comments often had more details than the articles.

[WNYresident]

The BN is in a lot of trouble but it's a bed that they made. For the last 20 years or so they have been telling their readers how much smarter they are (Donn Esmonde) than paying subscribers and how little the understand sports (Sullivan, Harrington, Graham and Gleason) to fans. If that wasn't enough they mixed in calling readers racist (Watson) for good measure. Mix this in with an utterly incompetent digital and development team who couldn't build a website to save their lives and you arrive at where they are today.

It's not like the region hasn't given the BN material to cover. All you need to do is spend 5 minutes reading a comments section or spend the afternoon at a BBQ with someone 3 arms away from the corruption to realize it exists and goes deep. But for all of the political and 'investigative' reporters they have on staff....they just decided not to cover these stories. Maybe they thought too little of their readers or they just never got the last call on the 'old boys club' that hasn't existed since JFK was in office. Who knows.

I do find it funny that one of the top stories on their website Tuesday morning is a recap of the stories they ran over the long weekend. Then a listicle and a gallery of some concert.

That is how I see it.

Why would a news paper tell people who they should vote with endorsements. A news paper should lay out the facts and let people decide for their own. The moment you endorse someone that a reader doesn't like you might lose that reader/subscriber. Why would you even risk that in the first place.

I used to by the Sunday paper all the time. Then it dawned on me why do I want to support a group that supports people who in my opinion hurt the area.

Instead of seeing the "paper" endorse candidates I would rather see 1 full page of reader endorsements. Do a 50/50 split. Last example would have been Hillary vs Trump. Let 200 people send in their endorsements, 100 for each candidate and the reason why they endorse that candidate. Just a short paragraph why each reader is voting for that candidate. Something like that.

[WNYresident]

Leftie, the reason they choose not to cover the open and obvious corruption is fealty to the Democratic Party, wellspring of 99.99% of the corruption in Buffalo, Erie County and NYS. You’re right on about Esmonde, Watson and the sports crew. And, little as I know about website development and so on, even I know a platter of **** when I see it. As for writing stories about their previously published stories this is just in keeping with a media pattern I’ve noticed for years, media members intruding themselves into a story to make it about them. Lyin’ Brian Williams is only the most comically idiotic example.

All joking aside you really think they are a shill for the local Democratic Party?

[WNYresident]

I think there are a few reasons why that paper is failing.
Papers in general aren't doing as well anymore.
More opinions in their articles than facts. Lack of details in the few cases where the article wasn't an opinion piece disguised as news.
Getting rid of the Disqus comment system. I stopped using their site after that and others likely did too, less page views means less ad revenue. Ch4 did the same and I don't go on their site any more either. In both cases the comments often had more details than the articles.

Why did you like Disqus versus facebook comments?

[Dan Roman]

They should just cut it down to 1 section, real estate transactions and death notices, that’s about all it seems good for, relaying public records in an easy to view format.

[grump]

All joking aside you really think they are a shill for the local Democratic Party?

Absolutely! All joking aside. In another thread, I posted about the Syracuse Post Standard which I got in the habit of looking at some years back. It is so stridently Democratic that it ran a recent article suggesting that the condo assessment laws were put in place to give Trump a tax write off for a condo that bears his name in Westchester County. As blatant a lie as that is, the Post Standard has done a much better job than the shoe shine rag of covering the bidding scandals involving Cuomo’s staff and donors. The shoe shine rag quickly swept under the rug the latest sex games involving the legislative lollipop, Hoyt, the sex games involving Assemblyman Grabberass from Cheek and the former state senator who fired his chief of staff, allegedly over who was “partnering” with whom in the office. I could go on and on.