Hartford Courant drops Red Sox beat, their last ML sports beat

Editor & Publisher: "In a sign of what may become a trend for major newspapers seeking cost cuts, The Hartford Courant has dropped its last major sports beat writer position. Jeff Otterbein, sports editor, said the paper will not send a reporter

• to cover the Boston Red Sox spring training, which begins next month, and
• will not staff a writer for their games.

"I just don't have a beat writer to cover it anymore," he said, noting last year's Sox scribe, Jeff Goldberg, took a buyout.

• "For the first time, we will not cover them home and away."

Goldberg's departure was part of a significant cut last September that reduced the paper's staffing by 25%. For sports, it marked the final cut in a beat coverage approach that had provided staff writers for the Red Sox, New England Patriots, New York Yankees and New York Giants in past years....

• But, in 2007 the cuts began when the paper stopped staffing beat writers for both the Giants and Yankees.

This past football season, the Patriots were not covered by a Courant beat writer for the first time. The Red Sox cutback will mean no major league beats are staffed by the paper....

• He said he may simply use AP stories or try to work with other newspapers, but stressed nothing had been decided....

Otterbein said the cutback in travel alone for a baseball beat is about $60,000, on top of the writer's salary....via Poynter.org/Romenesko

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