News

More Buyouts and Layoffs For Philadelphia Sports Media

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Nov 10th, 2017 · 12:15 PM EST

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Philadelphia’s largest newsroom continues to get smaller.

Sources tell Crossing Broad that the most recent round of buyouts and layoffs will see Mike Kern and Dick Jerardi leave the Philadelphia Media Network before the end of the year. Kern is reportedly taking a buyout. It’s not clear if Jerardi is doing the same or simply retiring.

Daily News scoreboard editor Bob Vetrone Jr. also confirmed his departure on Twitter:

I will not be dressing up tonight but in 2018 I will be dressing as a former @PhillyDailyNews employee; Taking a buyout & moving on …

— Bob Vetrone Jr. (@BoopStats) October 31, 2017

ICYMI – I will be taking a buyout from the @PhillyDailyNews as of Jan. 1, 2018 … Some sketchy blueprints for my future … Stay tuned …

— Bob Vetrone Jr. (@BoopStats) November 1, 2017

Jerardi spent years 33 years churning out high-quality stories, mostly on college basketball and horse racing. He was known for his decades of Big 5 basketball coverage and was recently honored at the Coaches vs. Cancer lunch:

Highlight of Coaches vs Cancer lunch: The coaches honored this man. pic.twitter.com/zsTcbuWmhE

— Mike Jensen (@jensenoffcampus) November 8, 2017

I know this definitively … Here's the complete list of people who covered the Big Five better than Dick Jerardi over past 30 years:

— Mike Jensen (@jensenoffcampus) November 8, 2017

Jerardi has recently worked a couple of side gigs, doing Penn State basketball radio broadcasts and co-hosting a weekly horse racing show.

Kern started back in 1980 and specialized in college sports and golf, coverage that won him awards from the Golf Writers Association of America and International Network of Golf. He’s a former president of the Philadelphia Sports Writers and appeared frequently on Daily News Live, before NBC Sports Philadelphia changed their afternoon programming to more generic fare.

The departure of Kern and Jerardi will leave the company with two college sports writers in Marc Narducci and Joe Juliano. Mike Jensen also covers college sports as a columnist and feature writer, so it’s unclear if his role will change.

A lot of great college sports coverage is eclipsed by our professional teams.

Consider the coverage distribution here. PMN has four full-time Eagles writers in Zach Berman, Jeff McLane, Les Bowen, and Paul Domowitch. There are four full-time columnists in Marcus Hayes, Bob Ford, Mike Sielski, and David Murphy. Six of those eight travel to Birds games, and I’m pretty sure all eight of them go to home games. They’ll occasionally pop up at Sixers games, which are covered by Keith Pompey, Sarah Todd, and sometimes Narducci. There are three Phillies writers and two Flyers writers, while Ed Barkowitz, John Smallwood, and Jonathan Tannenwald do a bit of everything.

PMN is looking to downsize by 30 to 35 employees while also hiring ten digitally-focused journalists:

“Inquirer and Daily News print advertising has declined faster than it can be replaced with newer sources of revenue such as digital advertising, which the company says requires it to cut costs.

But PMN is also encouraged by some early investments. The company last month began charging readers who click on more than 10 stories for further access to Philly.com, and those online subscriptions are “off to a good start,” (publisher Terrance C.Z.) Egger said.

Employees who lack digital skills or are uncomfortable with the newsroom changes can “self-select” their departure, he added. Egger credited top newsroom executives for crafting a buyout offer that was considerate to employees.”

Also, as part of the restructuring at NBCSP, longtime managing editor Andy Schwartz was let go. Schwartz was credited with building the site’s written coverage from the ground up.

At PhillyVoice, Phillies writer Ryan Lawrence will be out of a job come 2018– he was laid off along with two non-sports staffers. Rich Hofmann Jr. left in September to join The Athletic and Kyle Neubeck replaced him as the site’s Sixers writer.

Longtime Phillies writer Kevin Cooney was let go by Gatehouse Media, which bought the newspapers and digital properties previously owned by Calkins Media. Tom Moore has also moved to a more generic role at the publications which include the Bucks County Courier Times, The Intelligencer, and the Burlington County Times.