I think this could be a big story for 2013.

Sports networks are spending billions on rights fees thanks mainly to you and me. Your cable fees eventually go up to help pay for all that NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA we all consume. ESPN now charges $5.13 per month for each subscriber.

At some point, the already frustrated cable operators will say enough is enough. It could happen sooner than later.

The issue is starting to build some momentum.

From a recent LA Times story:

The average household already spends about $90 a month for cable or satellite TV, and nearly half of that amount pays for the sports channels packaged into most services. Massive deals for marquee sports franchises like the Dodgers and Lakers are driving those costs even higher. Over the next three years, monthly cable and satellite bills are expected to rise an average of nearly 40%, to $125, according to the market research company NPD Group.

So far, people seem willing to pay. But the escalating costs are triggering worries that, at some point, consumers will begin ditching their cable and satellite subscriptions.

“We’ve got runaway sports rights, runaway sports salaries and what is essentially a high tax on a lot of households that don’t have a lot of interest in sports,” said John Malone, the cable industry pioneer and chairman of Liberty Media. “The consumer is really getting squeezed, as is the cable operator.”

From Multichannel News:

DirecTV Exec VP/Programming & Chief Content Officer Dan York: “We would love to make all of these channels available to our customers, but the sports programmers are making it impossible with their unreasonable, unsustainable prices.”

Derek Thompson of The Atlantic recently wrote that non-sports fans should start pushing back.  They are paying for content they don’t want.

He writes:

Maybe DISH will decide it won’t pay the high costs that ESPN and regional sports networks demand and will become synonymous will “cable for people who hate sports.” That way, households in an area served by DISH and Comcast can choose between sports and not-sports, and if more people choose not-sports, then sports networks will necessarily slow their inflation rate to keep from upsetting sports fans who suddenly get stuck with a higher bill.

Will Leitch of Sports on Earth adds:

We live in an information-wants-to-be-free age, and we’re still being held down by these media-company gatekeepers. In the real world it’s 2012; in the cable universe, it might as well be 1988. Eventually, this will have to change. It’s too insane and rigged-against-the-consumer for it not to. The problem, of course, is that, like so many capitalists before them, leagues and teams and sports networks are all assuming that it’ll always be like this, that these revenue will keep growing forever and ever, that this golden goose will always keep laying eggs. There are decades upon decades of Darwinian consumer trends that contradict that. In 30 years, we may have all unplugged our cable bundles and be paying a la carte. This is the nightmare situation, but I’m not the first person to suggest we’re living in a cable sports television bubble. Someday it’ll pop. Then, suddenly, we’ll look and think: Why in the world is Maryland in the Big Ten?

Keep an eye out on this. And be sure to watch what happens to your cable bill.

It was inevitable.

After the 126 years, The Sporting News is printing its last magazine. One of the great traditions in sports is yet another casualty of the modern news era.

The Sporting News, though, isn’t going away. It still will exist at Sportingnews.com.

Here is the official statement from publisher Jeff Price and editor Garry Howard.

After 126 years of printing ink on paper with weekly, biweekly or monthly frequency, Sporting News will officially become a digital brand as of January 1, 2013. Based on interest expressed by a number of longtime readers, Sporting News will continue to print six highly popular, sport-specific yearbook previews in 2013—Baseball, NFL, College Football and College Basketball plus Fantasy Football and Fantasy Baseball—that will be available at newsstands across the country.

Having spoken with many of our longtime subscribers, we recognize this is not a popular decision among our most loyal fans. Unfortunately, neither our subscriber base nor the current advertising market for print would allow us to operate a profitable print business going forward.

Howard added:

“Sporting News is very much alive in the digital sports world, publishing a free daily sports App that is dynamic in nature and one of the leaders in its category on the iPad, in addition to our 24/7 web site, sportingnews.com.

“Yes, it’s a new day for Sporting News, but one that is looking toward the future and one that will help our brand reach more avid readers than ever before in its storied history.”

It’s been a while since many people thought of The Sporting News as a magazine, which is why that vehicle is fading away. It follows the lead of Newsweek, which also is ceasing its print publication.

Yet news of The Sporting News’ print demise had many of us veterans feeling nostalgic today:

@TimGrierson Reading the Sporting News as a kid made me the baseball fan I am today. I can’t imagine I’m the only one who feels that way.

The Sporting News was huge when I was coming of sports age in the 70s. Unlike the glossy Sports Illustrated, with its long articles, The Sporting News felt and read like a newspaper. Back then, the magazine still had its tradition of printing the boxscore of every baseball game. I mean, every game. I’m not sure I spent much time pouring over them, but it was something to see it all there on several pages.

The Sporting News featured columnists from other towns such as Furman Bisher from Atlanta and Art Spander from San Francisco. Later, they became friends in the profession.

The Sporting News also had Jack Craig, the first sports media columnist for the Boston Globe. For many of us, it was our introduction and eventually inspiration to cover this beat.

I had one of my greatest thrills in college when The Sporting News printed my story on the Illinois basketball team in 1981. I knew I had arrived. Later when I joined the Chicago Tribune, I wrote several pieces on college football for the magazine. I always felt it was an honor to see my byline in The Sporting News.

Time marches on, and The Sporting News is making its presence felt with its web site. It makes sense to pour all of its resources into that department.

But for those of us who grew up waiting for the magazine to land in the mail box, we owe a debt of gratitude to The Sporting News. A truly great institution.

Just catching up with this.

SportingNews.com editor Garry Howard wrote a response late Friday afternoon, addressing the furor over David Whitley’s column about Colin Kaepernick and his tattoos.

Howard wrote:

As a sports editor who also happens to be African-American, it is my job to vet each and every opinion piece to ensure that the message does not get lost and I certainly could have done more, in retrospect, to make sure it did not. In particular, the inference that many people with tattoos have been to prison, or that having tattoos is an indicator of criminality, was problematic to many readers.

Still, the overriding point of the column was there and one nationally televised discussion, in particular—on “First Take” with Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless—did a great job of explaining that the column was indeed more generational in tone and that tattoos in today’s society are not necessarily a great thing for young, prospective job candidates of all races.

Howard also quotes Whitley. Whitley wrote in an email:

“I fully realize sailors and Hell’s Angels aren’t the only people with tattoos these days. But tattoos still carry a negative stigma, which is why you don’t see a lot of politicians and captains of industry sporting ink.

“NFL QB represents the ultimate CEO figure in sports. And it’s been tattoo-free except for the few players who’ve lived up (or down) to the bad-guy tattoo image. Now along comes Kaepernick, a role model in the Tim Tebow category. His success would help shatter the tattoo stereotype. If old guys like me have a hard time dealing with that, too bad for us.

“That was my intended point,” he continued. “I wish I’d done a better job getting that across. What I didn’t factor in was that admitting I don’t like tattoos was going to be equated with me admitting I don’t like African-Americans. The women at the gym I referenced in that column are white. So is Jeremy Shockey. I once asked Dwight Howard if he’d ever get a tattoo, and he said no way. His aversion was based on religious ground. Mine was based on the fact I think tattoos look silly. I knew that would stamp me an Old Man. I didn’t know it would stamp me a racist.

Howard then concludes:

Hindsight always helps you see things clearer and the reaction to this—even inside our very own newsroom and the discussion I joined on Twitter last night and earlier today—has surely opened our eyes. It was not our intent to offend anyone, and if we did, we apologize.

However, we should be able to—in this day and time—have a discussion on the subject of tattoos without it morphing into a race debate when in fact, it was about a new generation doing things in a fresh and different manner.

That’s all I’m saying.

On Friday, I did a post featuring Whitley’s initial comments to the uproar. He said:

If they were old enough to read, my two adopted African-American daughters would certainly be disappointed to find out I’m a racist.

Last week, Malcolm Moran made a provocative statement in an interview with me.

“For the first time in the history of the industry, a 20-something journalist could have an advantage over a 40-something candidate,” said Moran, who will take over as the new head of the National Sports Journalism Center at Indiana in January.

Moran’s comment struck a chord. Several journalists weighed in with their views.

I thought it would be interesting to accumulate some stories and post them on this site. What are your experiences in the job market as a sports journalist? What is it like for recent graduates? Do 40-somethings really find themselves at a disadvantage?

I would like to use this site as a forum to share experiences in the industry. I think it would be valuable to one and all.

If you have a story to tell, please send me an email at ed@shermanreport.com. Or leave a comment on this post and I will get back to you.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks.

It was only a matter of time. Sara Ganim, the Harrisburg Patriot-News reporter who won a Pulitzer Prize for her work covering the Jerry Sandusky story, has been snapped up by CNN.

From the Patriot-News:

“I’m excited that I’m going to get to work on some other stuff,” she said. “I’m still going to work on the Sandusky story but I’m also ready to do other things. It’s not the only story in the world and I don’t want to get to the point where this is the only thing I can do.”

Ganim, who grew up in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., will be based in CNN’s Atlanta headquarters.

“They cover so much, not just geographically but a range of topics,” she said. “I’m excited to have the chance to cover national breaking news and enterprise.”

She quipped that she left Harrisburg just in time to escape the cold weather.

“It would have been my eighth winter and I’m so happy to move to a warmer climate. But if I could scoop this paper up and put it into a warmer place, I would work here forever,” she said. “I love what we do here and our news philosophy.”

A Pulitzer Prize winner at 24, Ganim should serve as an inspiration to young reporters. Age shouldn’t prevent anyone from doing big things in this business.

It isn’t often that a local sports cable channel sends a reporter and crew to another state let alone Cambodia. But this incredible story was more than worth the investment of cash and resources for Comcast Sports Net Chicago.

Airing in two parts on Tuesday and Wednesday (7 p.m. Central), CSN Chicago will debut From the Sports World to the Third World: A Journey to Cambodia. It is the story of what Bulls/Blackhawks/Bears team photographer Bill Smith and Bulls director of ticket operations Joe O’Neil have done to rescue the lives of more than 100 young children in Cambodia.

Smith and O’Neil have taken children who were living in unthinkable poverty in a garbage dump and provided them food, shelter and education through their charity, A New Day for Cambodia.

Please scroll to the end of this video where young girl, who was rescued by Smith and O’Neil, returns to the dump. I mean, powerful isn’t a strong enough word.

Memo to Comcast/NBC executives: Given the connection with Comcast, it would be great if these shows got national exposure on the NBC Sports Network. There is plenty of programming holes with the NHL being shut down. The nation should see this story.

I had chance to talk to CSN Chicago’s Chuck Garfien, who went over to Cambodia to film the documentary.

It is highly unusual, if not unheard of, for a local sports cable outlet to make this commitment. Why did CSN Chicago do it?

I go to spring training, the winter meetings, maybe a few other things. When I’ve told colleagues I went to Cambodia for this project, they were stunned. You just don’t leave the country if you work for a local market outlet.

CSN believed in the story and the storytelling we could do there. That meant a lot to me. When you see this story, you’ll know why.

What did you see?

Being there really drove home the whole thing. You see this garbage dump. Think of the dirtiest place in American and times it by 50, by 100. Bill Smith described it as ‘hell on Earth.’ Families built shacks in and around the dump. Kids were picking garbage for 30 cents a day. The parents didn’t even want them to go to school. They needed them to pick garbage to survive.

You’d see the look in the kids’ eyes. The despair. The light in their eyes was gone. It’s overwhelming.

The good news is that it isn’t an active dump anymore. However, we heard that there’s another dump about 20 miles away. The government said there weren’t any kids in there, but we heard they were. We tried for four days, but they wouldn’t let us in there.

Talk about what Smith and O’Neil have done?

They have rescued more than 100 kids from that garbage dump. They completely transformed their lives. Now instead of their goal being to collect garbage, they want to become doctors and lawyers. One girl wants to be the first female prime minister of Cambodia.

Bill showed the before and after photos of the kids. You can’t believe it. They are giving them a chance for life. You see the light in their eyes. It’s back.

Then there’s the other side of being a woman personality on sports TV. The scary side.

In a piece by Dylan Murphy of Sports Grid, Michelle Beadle talks frankly of a stalker who followed her to the Super Bowl in Indianapolis and then to West Hartford, Conn., when she was working at ESPN.

From the story:

These increasingly alarming messages were coupled with sporadic packages. Dave, who Beadle later learned was from Cincinnati and lived with his mom, sent her “Cincinnati-type things.” Namely, chili and barbecue sauce. Many of the packages never made it to Beadle thanks to ESPN’s security staff (none were sent to her home address), but ultimately some snuck through. One especially weird box comes to mind.

“I remember one time getting this package full of papers, like little index cards, cut out pictures of either religious themes or sports,” she said. “I mean it was like one after another, it had to be a hundred cards in there. I mean, what in the hell?”

And…

After the night came to a close, Beadle noticed a frightening reply from Dave that escalated the intensity of the situation ten-fold.

“I saw something he said on Twitter, where he said ‘Hey I met Jay Crawford [SportsCenter anchor] tonight in West Hartford,’ and I was like, ‘What?’ I come to find out that he was walking around West Hartford, ’cause I said I was having a girls night, and he was trying to find us.”

Beadle immediately alerted everyone she could at ESPN, because Dave had driven across the country to deliver a Valentine’s Day present. In particular, she went to an ESPN employee on the security side with whom she had spoken to before, and he pulled a few strings at the FBI to have Dave handled through a more direct means: a visit to his Cincinnati house. Two FBI agents showed up at his door to frighten him into the shadows, informing him that there was no relationship between the two and all communication between himself and Beadle had to cease immediately.

“They just scared him,” Beadle said. “They were like, ‘Look, this ends now. Stop sending messages, stop tweeting, stop everything. He sent a final tweet being like, “I am no longer allowed to speak with you, best of luck.’”

Read the entire piece. It puts some perspective on what some of these high-profile women have to go through.

Scanning media landscape while wondering if Chris Berman’s questions to the candidates last night impacted the election.

*******

Terry Bradshaw is mortified over reaction to a comment he made on Fox NFL Sunday. During a clip of Reggie Bush running for a score, Bradshaw said it was it was “like he was chasing that bucket of chicken with the wind was blowing.”

Huh?

Bradshaw explained to Michael Hiestand of USA Today that remark was directed toward Jimmy Johnson.

Bradshaw says he wasn’t even aware he said “he” — referring to Bush — when he meant to say “you” as a reference to fellow Fox NFL studio analyst Jimmy Johnson. “I can’t defend myself,” says Bradshaw. “I’ve never been in a situation like this. I don’t know how to react, except to apologize for something I didn’t know I said. I’ve been upset today. It’s not me. I’m shocked.”

Bradshaw said the comment was just part of a running joke Sunday that Johnson’s “big thing is chicken, Kentucky Fried Chicken. He won’t share it with anybody.”

And the comment, says Bradshaw, had nothing to do with Bush specifically. “I always include the (other Fox on-air guys) in the highlights because it’s fun. … It could have been with a highlight about anybody. You never know what’s going to come to mind when you do these things so quickly.”

Jimmy Johnson also tweeted that Bradshaw was referring to him. Fox said it won’t reprimand the analyst.

However, you can be sure Bradshaw won’t be referring to chicken any time soon.

********

Is Charles Barkley thinking of leaving his studio gig at TNT?  The analyst told SI.com’s Richard Deitsch that he is growing tired of the job.

“I love my job,” Barkley said. “I love the people I work with. And I’m going to  try to do things to keep me engaged. But I have four years left on my current  deal and to be honest with you, it’s going to be a struggle for me to make it  for the whole four years. I really don’t know how much longer I’m going to do  this. I need something more, or something else to do to be honest with you.”

Perhaps Deitsch caught Barkley on a bad day, because it is hard for me to believe he would leave that job.

I’m sure those comments put TNT execs in scramble mode. TNT will find a way to keep Barkley happy. As the post suggests, don’t be surprised to find him on site as an analyst at more games.

********

Other headlines:

Strong ratings for LSU-Alabama game. Sports Media Watch.

Q/A with Tony Reali on 10th anniversary of Around The Horn. Big Lead.

Vikings punter Chris Kluwe quits blog with St. Paul Pioneer-Press over paper’s gay marriage editorial.

Jon Miller discusses the upcoming EPL deal with NBC Sports. Philly.com.

I mean, some guys never grow up. The former Saints quarterback, now a radio personality in New Orleans, was asked several times to follow the “No cheering in the press box” rule during last night’s Alabama-LSU game. Hebert apparently didn’t care about the people trying to work around him and was eventually escorted out.

From Yahoo’s Pat Forde.

On Saturday night, Hebert was warned repeatedly about violating working press box decorum and cheering for the Tigers. Finally, LSU associate athletic director Herb Vincent informed Hebert that he had to leave the press box, and a uniformed police officer escorted him out.

On the next play, LSU scored the go-ahead touchdown.

Hebert’s son, T-Bob, played on last year’s LSU team. He’s the least objective of journalists, but is a popular personality in his home state of Louisiana.