Phillies

Philadelphia Inquirer Adds Phillies Writer, Matt Breen Shifts to New Role

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Jan 18th, 2022 · 10:32 AM EST

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Local sports media news:

Some personal news, as the saying goes: Starting soon, I'll be joining the @PhillyInquirer to cover the Phillies alongside @ScottLauber. To say I am excited would be an understatement. I can't wait to get to work!

— Alex Coffey (@byalexcoffey) January 18, 2022

I’m moving off the Phillies beat @PhillyInquirer to write feature stories across all sports. Enjoyed covering the Phils for seven seasons and will miss sharing a press box every night with great friends. Thanks all for reading and following along. Very excited for this new role!

— Matt Breen (@matt_breen) January 18, 2022

Breen had been branching out in recent weeks. If you go over to his page at the Inquirer, there are Sixers and Eagles stories, and even a feature on the UFC’s Chris Daukaus, who left the Philly police force to focus on mixed martial arts. Breen had previously done the Phillies beat alongside Scott Lauber and Bob Brookover, the latter of whom took a buyout and was part of the recent veteran exodus.

According to Coffey’s Linkedin profile, she’s a 2016 graduate of William and Mary, down in Virginia. She was a Major League Baseball intern and came through the public relations ranks with the Baseball Hall of Fame and the Seattle Mariners. It looks like she transitioned from comms to the scribal arts when she joined The Athletic to cover the Seattle Storm in 2019, before shifting gears to write about the Oakland A’s.

As it stands, the Inquirer’s sports department now looks something like this:

• Phillies: Scott Lauber, Alex Coffey
• Sixers: Keith Pompey, Gina Mizell
• Eagles: Jeff McLane, Josh Tolentino, E.J. Smith
• Flyers: Olivia Reiner, Giana Han
• Union: Jonathan Tannenwald
• columnists: Marcus Hayes, Mike Sielski, David Murphy
• enterprise/features/etc: Mike Jensen, Matt Breen
• college/high school: some local kids + whatever staff is available, I think

There are a lot of new faces in there. It’s a more diverse staff following the departure of all those white guys in the last year or two, and there’s a noted digital approach as they try to grow their subscriber base behind the paywall.