After leaving the Philadelphia Inquirer via buyout, veteran writer Sam Carchidi is taking a new gig with Philly Hockey Now.

He penned an introductory post on the PHN website, which says this, in part:

As I mentioned last week, I planned to do more work on the Flyers, and I’ve been fortunate to land at Philly Hockey Now, where I will be reporting on the up-and-down team. PHN is also part of the growing National Hockey Now network which is now 15 cities deep.

I plan to do a lot of interaction with fans to find out what you want the coverage to look like. More stories on prospects? More human-interest stories?  More stories on the front office and what is needed to end a long Stanley Cup drought?

It’s interesting to track the departures of the Inquirer veterans. Some, like Sam and Les Bowen, continue with their writing for different outlets. Others retired and/or got out of the journalism game entirely. This buyout package was the best one the company has offered, but obviously some of these dudes just enjoy what they do and don’t mind doing it on a different platform.

Carchidi’s departure was the symbolic final buyout for what we would call the Inquirer’s “old guard.” In the last two years, the following guys all departed:

  • Mike Kern
  • Dick Jerardi
  • Sam Donnellon
  • John Smallwood (RIP)
  • Rick O’Brien
  • Bob Ford
  • Phil Anastasia
  • Les Bowen
  • Paul Domowitch
  • Marc Narducci
  • Ed Barkowitz
  • Bob Brookover
  • Joe Juliano
  • Frank Fitzpatrick
  • Sam Carchidi

The Inquirer got much younger and diverse, and went in a new digital direction. I wrote about it last year: