Beatwriter goes in-house: Hammond's L.A. Kings coverage in the new world
by Dominik on Sep 23, 2009 4:01 PM EDT
in This, That & What-Not
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PrintBack when there was the hub-bub with Chris Botta's Islanders Point Blank losing its sponsorship (or at least not getting career-adequate sponsorship to continue the arrangement), I remarked how I always assumed many of these undercovered NHL teams like the Isles will need to have some sort of MLB-like in-house beat that is (ideally) free of editorial control.
That wasn't exactly a super-prescient observation, but actually doing so is still an earth-shaking plunge in the context of how media used to be and how it is evolving (in some cases, finally evolving) today. The Kings have taken that plunge, with one of the best beat writers in the league. From the team release:
The Los Angeles Kings today announced the appointment of long-time Los Angeles Daily News hockey writer Rich Hammond as beat writer/columnist for LAKings.com, the club’s official website. Hammond, who will travel with the Kings full-time during the 2009-10 season, will begin providing exclusive content to LAKings.com on October 1.
It's still a bummer that it's come to this, but -- depending on how it's executed (MLB actually has a separate company that staffs all of the team site's editorial content) -- it's a smart and likely inevitable move by the Kings.
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I hate to sound whiny in regards to Botta
but I don’t think I entirely trust the independence of his reporting. Granted occasionaly he’ll of a sharp critique of the team and it’s managment.
When it comes to Wang and the LightHouse he’s really hands on erasing any and all criticism off the site. Botta writes some really sharp and fun pieces for all of us to digest but I don’t exactly hold him as an independent minded source.
I’ve never followed how he handles comments and criticism — I just notice when in his posts he’ll refer to a bunch of people criticizing this or that. I think he tries earnestly to be objective as possible, but his experience is obviously going to color his lens some, Lighthouse Project in particular (where he’s a fan, former employee and a concerned resident all in one).
He ripped the team or at least the management enough where I honestly wasn’t too worried about him shilling; I more just felt, “okay, I disagree with his take on this or that.”
The craziest part to me was when he’d seem to get info from the club before or apart from Logan. I know they were competing to a degree, but I’d think the club would’ve done everything it could to make sure the Newsday beat remained healthy and a good source. And when deliberately placing info, it looks bad if it goes to the sponsored writer: Either hire a guy completely or not at all, so that it’s clear why he has the team-confirmed info and the unaffiliated reporter does not.
Lighthouse Hockey: Side effects may include Weight gain and frequent game loss.
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