There has been a lot of disheartening news regarding sportswriters over the past year or so and it's unfortunately still persisting.
Famed MLB writer Jon Heyman has left CBS Sports, according to Joe Lucia of Awful Announcing. Heyman also acknowledged his departure from CBS in responding to friends and followers on his Twitter account.
Heyman told Lucia that his work with the MLB Network was not going to be affected.
The reasons still remain unknown, but Awful Announcing wonders (again) this time around if there is a brain drain going on at CBS Sports. Heyman is not the only writer/pundit to depart from the network in recent years as Bruce Feldman, Mike Freeman, Jeff Goodman, Danny Knobler, Scott Miller, Brett McMurphy, David Feherty, C. Trent Rosecrans and others have found employment elsewhere since 2012.
Heyman joined CBS at the end of 2011 after serving as a senior writer and columnist for Sports Illustrated. Heyman also worked for Newsday and the Sporting News before joining SI.
The timeliness of Heyman's departure makes sense as his final column for CBS was published on Dec. 31, so perhaps the two sides had been in agreement to part ways at the beginning of 2016. However, the revelation was abrupt, which may fortify Awful Announcing's stance on the issue back in 2014:
"The impact of television on the sportswriting industry has been enormous since the launch of PTI and Around the Horn. Sportswriters can now easily themselves as television personalities and not just a headshot on a column. Perhaps this is a sign that CBS Sports Network, with its limited distribution and reach, can't offer enough to keep these high-profile writers at CBSSports.com."
Many baseball beat writers and journalists appear on MLB Network to get in their television time since newspapers and magazines don't typically offer such opportunities. Fellow sportswriters Ken Rosenthal, Jon Morosi, Joel Sherman and others make their appearances on MLB Network to have their voices heard on different platforms. Those writers are among the most prominent MLB writers, but they also represent opposite ends of the spectrum: Rosenthal and Morosi work for FOX, which broadcasts the MLB playoffs and provides much more exposure on other platforms for the two reporters, and Sherman works for the New York Post, which is a print entity.
Heyman was seemingly caught in the middle as he was working for a multi-platform network that instead broadcasted bloggers (Matt Syder, Mike Axisa, Dave Brown and others) from their living rooms and perhaps didn't give Heyman the proper exposure as the company's lead baseball writer/reporter.
Stay tuned for updates once more is made available. In the meantime, we extend our best wishes to Jon.
*ICYMI: Jeff Bradley reminds us how hard it is to work/find work as a sportswriter in this day and age.