News

Mike Jensen Leaving Philadelphia Inquirer

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Nov 15th, 2023 · 9:12 AM EST

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Mike Jensen announced his Philadelphia Inquirer departure Wednesday morning, but was scooped by the Palestra video board earlier in the week:

Better than all the rest. pic.twitter.com/TjB3RDsZl6

— Dan Gelston (@APgelston) November 14, 2023

I was scooped by the Palestra scoreboard – hey, turnabout is fair play – but that building had it right as always … this is, in fact, my last week at the Inquirer. My closing Off Campus column fixes every single thing in college sports https://t.co/tVBtvqqc1a via @phillyinquirer

— Mike Jensen (@jensenoffcampus) November 15, 2023

His choice to leave after 35 years. Mike’s going to focus next on writing a book on Philly hoops.

He wrote this in his farewell column:

I believe I’ve been blessed with the greatest sportswriting job in the greatest sports city on earth. I’m also completely excited about the next thing, a book on Philly hoops, on all the ways the city and region have impacted the sport. Look for it hopefully in 2025. From now on, you can reach me at jensenphillyhoops@gmail.com. Thanks for reading, truly.

This is a loss for local sports media, because Jensen really owned the college beat over the years. Big 5, some Penn State, local D2 and D3 stuff, following high school players who went elsewhere, basically just finding interesting stories that needed to be told. Philadelphia has a robust college scene with a lot going on, which gets buried in the four-for-four fanaticism sometimes, but Mike did a fantastic job reporting on it over the years, especially on the feature side of things. His departure takes more institutional knowledge out the door.

Jeff Neiburg is going to move full-time to college coverage for the Inquirer. He had been handling the company’s betting vertical, then took over the Flyers beat on an interim basis to begin this season. That job is now being handled by Jackie Spiegel.