“I started working at the (Boston) Herald the following September, answering phones and doing shit work, organizing food runs, working on the Sunday football scores section,” he says. “What a miserable place. I thought it was just me, but I have gotten emails from people since who had similarly horrible experiences there.
“Some of the copy editors were the meanest, most unhappy people I have ever been around. . .I mean, it was unbelievable. I had never seen anything like it. That was the most discouraging environment imaginable for someone who dreamt of becoming a columnist some day. What I really hated was that, eventually, you turn into those people – you start slamming everyone else behind their backs. Man, I hated that place.
“After three years I knew I needed to get out, and I knew it would be years before I ever got a chance. Plus, I never clicked with the new sports editor (Mark Torpey) after Bob Sales was fired. In retrospect, I should have gone to JJ Foley’s on Thursday nights and laughed at his jokes like Mike Felger did, but I didn’t know to do that at the time.
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“You forget,” the Guy implores. “I TRIED to do this conventionally. I spent three years at the Herald and even tried to make my mark at the Phoenix . The bottom line is that newspaper unions have killed this business – writers stay too long and never leave, and young writers who would kill to have their jobs never have a chance. Quick, how many Boston columnists have been hired in the past 10 years at one of the two papers? Here’s your answer – Howard Bryant and Jackie MacMullan. [Shots adds in Michael Holley, who did, despite some flip-flopping, have a column at the Globe.]
“So when someone like (Dan) Shaughnessy is bitching behind the scenes that I (or any other internet columnist) ‘never go in the clubhouse,’ well, you know what? I would have loved to have gotten a column that way. But all the dead weight was blocking my way.
“Clearly, I was good enough to do this for a living, but there was no way I was every getting a chance doing it conventionally. That’s what pisses me off. I never even had a real chance. I mean, this is the only industry where companies PAY PEOPLE TO LEAVE. Look at what just happened at the Herald [now at the Globe, too] – they had to spend four years worth of salaries to dump all their dead weight. This is a good system? If I suck for the next two years, you know what happens? ESPN doesn’t renew my contract and I’m unemployed. With newspapers, you could basically hand in scribble for 20 years and they have to keep paying you. It’s bad business. That’s why so many newspapers will be going under soon, if they aren’t already.