(Ezekiel Loseke, Headline USA) Amid financial struggles, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times have closed their woke sports pages in favor of online coverage.
The New York Times reported last week on the shuttering of its sports section.
It said that its coverage was being discontinued in light of its acquisition of The Athletic—a publication that, it admitted, has not turned a profit since its purchase in January 2022 at a cost of $550 million.
The “Grey Lady” reported that none of its unionized employees would be laid off as a result of the move.
However, the union itself labeled the acquisition of The Athletic and the subsequent layoffs an attempt at “union busting.”
The writers at the New York Times released an open letter describing their treatment at the hands of “the paper of record” in all things but sports, according to the rival New York Post.
“For 18 months, The New York Times has left its sports staff twisting in the wind,” the letter said.
“We have watched the company buy a competitor with hundreds of sportswriters and weigh decisions about the future of sports coverage at The Times without, in many instances, so much as a courtesy call, let alone any solicitation of our expertise,” it continued. “The company’s efforts appear to be coming to a head, with The Times pursuing a full-scale technological migration of The Athletic to The Times’s platforms and the threat that the company will effectively shut down our section.”
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times revealed it, too, was shuttering its sports page, though the situation was “not as drastic” as the New York Times’ announcement, according to the sports blog Awful Announcing.
The changes were also reported by a tweet by the Sporting Tribune.
THIS JUST IN: The Los Angeles Times sports section will no longer have box scores, standings, game stories, TV listings or a daily sports calendar. The change was made to accommodate new 3 p.m. deadlines following the sale of their printing press. Thoughts? Will you miss it? pic.twitter.com/Ci8joQ7CGI
— The Sporting Tribune (@SportingTrib) July 9, 2023
The newspaper “will no longer have box scores, standings, game stories, TV listings or a daily sports calendar,” the tweet said, explaining that it needed to make the change to accommodate the sale of its printing press.
The same paper had to cut 13% of its newsroom in June, according to NPR.
The Los Angeles Times attempted to put a positive spin on its decision, calling it a “new era” when it announced the cost-cutting alterations to its readers.
“The printed sports section will take on the look and feel of a daily sports magazine, with a different design showcasing our award-winning reporting and photography,” it wrote. “You no longer will see box scores, standings and traditional game stories, but those will be replaced by more innovative reporting, in-depth profiles, unique examinations of the way teams operate, investigations, our distinct columnists’ voices, elite photography and more.”
The Los Angeles Times, like the New York Times, has been going increasingly woke in its sports coverage, according to RedState.
Jim Thompson, a news cartoonist, described ending his work with the Los Angeles Times, because his cartoons were increasingly being rejected on behalf of woke political reasoning.
“The LA Times sports section had also started to turn into a political and social justice mouthpiece,” he wrote.
“Maybe readers got tired of it and stopped reading,” he continued. “In any event, the sports section that once published my cartoons weekly and used my cartoons as front-page art has now decided that it won’t publish a lot of what people who still read newspapers want to read.”
