Opinions on Ken Sugiura

[TheTaxJacket]

I like Ken. Better than Doug.

Winklejohn>Coley>Seguira>Roberson.

Coley was with the Macon Telegraph and a got a huge job opportunity that he took, but he did a great job with Tech.

 

[swampsting]

Coley, I think, also left the FSU beat at Tallahassee for another gig. Can't remember what it was but I don't recall if he was on their beat this season.

And before Roberson, there was Knobler, who I think left the AJC to go to law school.

 

[xenoabe]

Ken does a good job. The AUC doesn't give the GT beat writers a lot to work with but Ken does well with what he's given.

Coley will always be the greatest GT beat reporter in recent history.

 

[xenoabe]

Coley, I think, also left the FSU beat at Tallahassee for another gig. Can't remember what it was but I don't recall if he was on their beat this season.

He has a gig with ESPN covering the Bengals.

 

[forensicbuzz]

As a beat reporter, that is exactly his role - to stay objective. He can provide analysis but the opinion stuff is left to, for better or worse, Bradley and Schultz. They're columnists. It's their job to provide perspective, rightly or wrongly. Ken, as a beat guy, is supposed to be neutral, even though I get the suspicion he does get along with PJ pretty well.

I always thought that the beat writer should provide information about the team, special interest stories, behind the scenes stuff and kind of be the voice of the team within the paper. I would expect a closer relationship with the coaching staff than most columnists or others, thus tend to be a little less objective and give a little more positive slant towards most stories. I also would expect the beat writer to be less likely to flame a negative story for hits.

I think Ken does a good job of walking the line between objectivity and being part of the team. However, sometimes is seems as if he's going too far the other way to prove he's objective. That was my meaning. I'm not a journalist, and don't really know how a paper's staff is designed to work, but I do know that Bradley and Schultz are paid for their opinions, not necessarily Ken.

 

[swampsting]

I always thought that the beat writer should provide information about the team, special interest stories, behind the scenes stuff and kind of be the voice of the team within the paper. I would expect a closer relationship with the coaching staff than most columnists or others, thus tend to be a little less objective and give a little more positive slant towards most stories. I also would expect the beat writer to be less likely to flame a negative story for hits.

The first parts of that are certainly true, but it really isn't his job to be the voice of the team. He can't really get into, for lack of a better term, cheerleading. He does get to build relationships with the players and staff that most columnists never get to accomplish because of his day to day interaction. But that's why he has to remain objective as well. You run the risk of spoiling those and losing those if you give your opinion and it may not be an opinion that goes over so well. Ken's job is more of a nuts and bolts thing, and there's a reason they call it grinding out stuff.
Sometimes what may come across as negativity could be a writer's disappointment when his own expectations are high or raised of a team he covers.

 

[swampsting]

John Hollis did a good job covering Tech back in the early 2000s too.

 

[AlabamaBuzz]

I am o.k. with Ken....liked Matt a lot, but Ken does a better than average job.....

 

[GTJason]

The only problem I have with Ken probably isn't up to him. It's the fact all of his decent stories are behind a pay wall. Hell there isn't even a free story discussing how GT beat ND in basketball. Otherwise his stories and interviews are good. He seems to ask good questions during press conferences you can see on youtube. He never hesitates to ask CPJ a question even when he knows it's going to make CPJ mad.

 

[alaguy]

He is great upgrade from before.Enjoy his insight usually.

 

[TechCubed]

Ken does a good job and seems like a decent guy. I appreciate his humor on his blog and twitter.

I think the big difference in coverage from AJC is that for many years, they had two beat writers covering GT. Most recent I can recall was maybe Winkeljohn and Rana Cash or Larry Hartstein. When the paper cut staff, that's when Roberson became the beat writer.

From a coverage standpoint, you'd get a notebook and feature almost every single day. Plus, they'd be able to cover football and basketball at the same time when they overlapped. In the current situation, Ken is required to file blog entries, practice notebooks and features. Just not nearly the same quantity/quality of content on a weekly basis.

Plus, when Macon and Savannah had beat writers, there was some variety in the information you'd get on a regular basis.

Nothing against the Scout and Rivals guys, but they come from the world of recruiting "reporting," which is more geared toward rumors and innuendo, so it's not really the same as a beat writer who is regularly writing feature stories and has the ability to file FOI requests.

 

[swampsting]

I wonder how much the online and social media presence - blogs, tweets and the CineSport video segments - cut into Ken's time and ability to crank stuff out every day. And how much of the focus is now directed toward those platforms, too.

 

[Ggee87]

Ken does a good job over at the AJC. WS have to remember that he is fighting the good fight for Tech at the AJCUGA paper. He's in the minority and I appreciate him for all he does, and probably puts up with from all the muttloving writers up their. Also the guy just had a baby so give him a break. The new pay site has screwed things up. Now they write twice as many stories and the good ones you have to pay for now. What a dumb idea to make a buck. Highly doubt its working out for them.

 

[swampsting]

Ken does a good job over at the AJC. WS have to remember that he is fighting the good fight for Tech at the AJCUGA paper. He's in the minority and I appreciate him for all he does, and probably puts up with from all the muttloving writers up their. Also the guy just had a baby so give him a break. The new pay site has screwed things up. Now they write twice as many stories and the good ones you have to pay for now. What a dumb idea to make a buck. Highly doubt its working out for them.

Well, more and more papers are going that route or the "metered" route, where you get x number of free visits to their stuff before having to get an online subscription (or a free online pass if you have a print subscription).
I'd bet Ken and any other beat writer isn't in the office more than a day or two a week for staff meetings, training, etc., and even then he's not there all day, unless he's got to answer the phones at night because they're short-handed or he's covering for someone off/on vacation. I think someone like O'Brien is in the office for 15 minutes a week during the Braves season for the sole purpose of filling out travel vouchers and expense reports and picking up a check.
They're either at the beat, be it practice, game, presser, on the road or at home, where they can get a lot of work done via phone and laptop.

 

[pckl300]

As the AJC correspondent on Tech athletics, my opinion is that he does a marginal job and doesn't show much enthusiasm for our programs. I think we deserve better.

Why exactly do we deserve better? I think Ken does a fine job. He's certainly an upgrade over whoever came before him. But, it's not like our team is currently setting the world on fire. I'd say our reporting is about on par with the team we have.

 

[TheTaxJacket]

Georgia State men's basketball coach Ron Hunter said his team hasn't peaked yet after it beat Arkansas-Little Rock 99-73 on Saturday at the Sports Arena.

LMGTAO!!!!!!!

This is Doug Robersons piece after GSU won tonight. Riveting stuff here folks. Not a portion of the article. That is it.