Shrinking population in baseball press boxes-Wall St. Journal

"Baseball's independent press corps, once the most powerful in American sports, is fading. As newspapers cut budgets and payrolls, the press boxes at major league ballparks are becoming increasingly lonely places, signaling a future when some games may be chronicled only by wire services, house organs and Web writers watching the games on television....

• It's not clear how many newspaper beat writers and columnists will vanish. Some major dailies in baseball towns like Boston and New York say so long as they exist, they will never stop covering their teams. Online-only sources have filled some of the void, and independent Web sites have popped up where fans gather to comment on the games as they happen. In many ways,
• baseball writers are no different than other professionals whose industries are being shrunk....

Their exalted status gave rank-and-file BBWAA members unusual powers, from being assured entry to clubhouses and press box seats at the World Series to electing players to baseball's Hall of Fame. After 10 years, BBWAA members are given certain perks that continue even after retirement....

• Beginning this season, the Washington Post will rely on the Baltimore Sun to cover the Orioles,

• while the Sun will leave its Nationals coverage to the Post, part of a broader content-sharing deal being replicated at papers around the country.

• The Hartford Courant quit sending a reporter on the road with the Red Sox, and

• the Worcester Telegram & Gazette has cut its Red Sox road presence to between 35-40 games from 70 last year.

• And the New York Times now sends only one person on certain road trips that in the past would have called for two, Mr. Jolly said....

Still, some major dailies are not about to take reporters off the baseball beat. The cash-strapped Boston Herald has cut its city desk by more than half in the past five years, but tinkering with Red Sox coverage "was never really an option," said Tony Massarotti, who covered the team for the Herald for nearly 15 years before moving to the rival Globe last fall."...'Baseball Writers Brace for the End,' Wall St. Journal by Russell Adams and Tim Marchman, 4/7/09. via Poynter.org/Romenesko

• 10/16/07, Washington Post, Howell: "Because of a tight budget and the Orioles' poor record,
• The Post stopped covering their road games this summer."

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