If your business depends on free publicity from newspapers, what do you do when the papers can no longer afford to send reporters to cover you? In professional sports, the answer, increasingly, is hire your own.
The Los Angeles Kings hockey team last week hired Rich Hammond, who had covered the Kings for The Los Angeles Daily News, to write about the team for its Web site.
Michael Altieri, a Kings spokesman, said the team had given Hammond a multiyear commitment and complete autonomy to post reporting or commentary.
“We have a passionate fan base who want instant information about our team, but there’s been declining news coverage of us,” Altieri said.
After years of trimming jobs, pages and travel budgets, many big-city papers no longer provide regular coverage of every local sports team, and sending reporters on road trips has become rare. Hammond, 32, will travel with the Kings and cover all of their games. He said the job switch means a modest pay increase, and considering the state of newspapers, it may also improve his job security.
Photo by LA Kings.