[candy]

Let me respond

Here's just a partial list of fishing/hunting stories last year. I could give you many more examples, if you'd like...
Giant rockfish helps Queenstown man earn stripes, The Baltimore Sun, Sunday, December 7, 2008.
Deer season starts with a bang for local hunters,The Baltimore Sun, Sunday, November 30,2008
Waterways face threat; invasive mussel found, The Baltimore Sun, Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Thinking inside the box to help ducks, The Baltimore Sun, Sunday, November 23, 2008
Gliding and learning in the state's $4.3 million floating bay laboratory,The Baltimore Sun, Sunday, November 16, 2008
Md. officials should throw lifeline to depleted stock of brook trout, The Baltimore Sun, Sunday, November 9, 2008
At sanctuary, migrating hawks are a flight to see, The Baltimore Sun, Sunday, November 2, 2008
Candidates' wooing hunters mostly a miss, The Baltimore Sun, Sunday, October 26, 2008
In a matter of minutes, 2-hunter team bags a bear, The Baltimore Sun, Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Baby oysters settling in as newest bay residents, The Baltimore Sun, Sunday, October 19, 2008
Plan could reopen tributaries for yellow perch fishing, The Baltimore Sun, Friday, October 3, 2008
Contest nets Edgewater man nice pickup, The Baltimore Sun, Sunday, September 14, 2008
At Prettyboy, a birthday ritual that has couple hooked, The Baltimore Sun, Sunday, September 7, 2008
Two keeper books celebrate the exploits of beloved fishing guru Lefty Kreh, The Baltimore Sun, Sunday, August 24, 2008,
Other fish in the sea - many others, The Baltimore Sun, Sunday, August 3, 2008
Pressure to get perch rules just right for anglers, environment, The Baltimore Sun, Sunday, July 27, 2008
Loch Raven overflowing ... with fishing possibilies, The Baltimore Sun, Sunday, July 20, 2008
Fish hook some young anglers on hot, sunny day, The Baltimore Sun, Sunday, July 13, 2008
One of those bass a real gem, The Baltimore Sun, Sunday, July 6, 2008
One fish, two fish could get easier, The Baltimore Sun, Sunday, June 15, 2008

 

[candy]

And Mr. DrewZim

I haven't gotten a press release from your organization in many years.
I type up every listing I receive and save a hard copy of each one in a file drawer. What gets in the paper is up to the sports editors. All listings are posted on line.
I received releases from a Jane Zimmer for the youth event for several years, but have gotten nothing from the organization in the last four years.
So please don't tell me I tell you every year, "next year."

 

[candy]

Dashaway, you're right. You too, Skip.
It's a crummy time to be in newspapers.
And if you don't write Ravens/Redskins stories, editors don't want to hear from you much less give you space.
It's not just at the Sun. I hear The Examiner has cut Boyd to twice a month. The Post has Angus write on a per-column basis. Bill is very sick and I know a lot of you pray for him every day.
If you have a full-time gig at a paper, you can't just write outdoors anymore. That's why I have to earn my keep by pitching in on other stuff.
If Bill, Boyd and Angus were still full-time, they'd be forced to write other stuff, too, I'm afraid, or find a pink slip in with their pay. It's sad.
When I started in this beat in 2000, I had two columns and a fishing report. Editors keep slicing away because they don't hear any complaints from the public, so they figure no one cares.
I'm not whining, I chose this job. Like many other professions, it's changing.
Still, many folks in the outdoors community make it worthwhile: Wish-A-Fish, Project Healing Waters, Mark Hoke and his youth hunts and all the folks, like Capt. Kevin on Megabyte, who teach a new generation to respect and enjoy the outdoors.

 

[candy]

My prediction

is that within two years, most newspapers will shift operations to the Web and the print edition will be reduced to a Sunday paper and a specialized, small circulation daily.
Of course, I would like to be one of those who survives and switches outdoors coverage over to the Web site full-time, with its 24-hour news cycle and unlimited space. That's one of the reasons I'm pitching in on other topics now (and learning to edit video...call it survival of the fittest.
If I make the switch in the near future, outdoors coverage on-line will increase dramatically. That I can promise you.
As for Hedda's observation that "news is obtained from the internet, TV and/or radio," that's true, as far as it goes. But where does anyone think the bulk of what WBAL and WJZ and, for that matter AP Baltimore, reports comes from?
It still comes from the newsrooms of the Sun, the Capital, the Post, the Salisbury Times, etc., because when it comes to manpower, newspapers still have the largest staffs, by far.
Kill the newspapers and you effectively kill the bulk of the news coverage.
Newspapers' mistake a decade ago was to give away its product--coverage of the news--for free. There isn't a business in the world that can survive if it hands out what it makes without compensation.
Sorry for opening a vein, but it's winter and I'm recovering from surgery and I'm cranky.
Be well and stay warm, gang. I still need ya.
Candy

 

[candy]

Here's what I'm doing

I just came in from checking for yellow perch on Gray's Run off the Bush River in Harford County, one of my early-in-the-year fishing spots, and lots of other people, too.
And guess what? A 1,428-gallon sewage spill caused by an industrial grease clog has the area posted off-limits until further notice.
I'm going to note that in my column.
Next I'm heading to Timonium to the show.
That's what I'm doing.
I notice you use but don't subscribe to Tidal Fish. Hello!!!!! Free rides like that keep businesses from growing. Duh.

 

[candy]

Thanks, dude.
You going to Timonium this year?

 

[candy]

Yeah, just talked to five of my friends at the Seattle paper. One guy is three months from retirement, another just put his mom into an assisted-care facility after burying his dad late last year.
Anytime someone speak gleefully about the death of the Sun, I think of the majority of the 2,000 or so employees--the women who take classifieds, the guys who work at Sun Park--they're the ones who will be really hurting.