Letters to Sports: Readers sound off about changes to Times Sports section

On Sunday, the L.A. Times informed readers that the newspaper would no longer carry actual sports news, like game reports, box scores and standings.

On Monday, I received a notice from the L.A. Times that my subscription was increasing to over $1,000 per year.

I come from a family of newspaper people. I wrote for a newspaper for several years. I’m a tech guy who can easily get any news I want online, without paying a dime. I was partly justifying paying your $1,000 per year because I want to support newspapers. But mainly, I want to read news in a physical newspaper, in the morning with my coffee.

Deciding that your newspaper doesn’t need to deliver actual sports news is a foolish and baffling choice. If I want “magazine” style content, I’ll subscribe to a magazine. Reducing the Sports “section” to a couple of back pages was disappointing, but I stuck with The Times. It was disappointing that you were using wire services to report on local games, but I stuck with The Times.

No sports news at all is the end for me. After being a Times subscriber for 45 years, I canceled my subscription.

Mark Gleason
Costa Mesa

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So you’re telling me that if I want to find out what the Dodgers did yesterday or who they’re playing tomorrow, I need to go online? OK. Just know that you’re destroying the very idea of a newspaper Sports section in the process. In all this cost-cutting, The Times seems to have forgotten that the readers of their Sports section are people who actually want to read a newspaper.

Hopefully it won’t cost too much to put this letter in print.

Dave Stuart
Westlake Village

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I understand the desire for The Times to put a spit-shined PR spin on the recent decimation of its Sports section vis-à-vis the removal of game recaps, standings, box scores and TV listings — a.k.a. the very purpose and life’s blood of any Sports section — but please don’t patronize your print readership. These changes aren’t being made because you think we have some burning desire to read a “daily sports magazine” or because your print customers aren’t reading those features. They’re being made because financial considerations have conspired to move the paper’s print deadline to mid-afternoon. If you expect people to continue to turn to The Times for news, you at least owe your last remaining print customers the truth.

Jessica Morgan
Pasadena

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There was a time, not so long ago, when I looked forward to seeing the L.A. Times newspaper in front of my domicile.

Those days are gone.

Duane Plank
El Segundo

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Did you forget that the L.A. Times is a newspaper and not a magazine?

Daniel Nardoni
Pasadena

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So a Sports section without game stories, standings, box scores, schedules, etc. Will you still be calling it a NEWSpaper?

Gene Axelrod
Huntington Beach

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To quote John McEnroe: “You cannot be serious!”

John D.B. Grimshaw
Lake Forest

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I am very unhappy that you have chosen to remove essential components of the Sports section: the TV listings and the baseball standings. Those are the first things I look at and now nothing. And no, I cannot find these at the L.A. Times app as you indicated. You continue to give me reasons to feel like the print subscription is no longer useful.

Suzanne Michaud
Santa Barbara

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So now we don’t get a real Sports section. If I must use my computer or cellphone to find out who won a ball game or tennis match, I don’t need the L.A. Times. I am sorry to say that this is another step toward the end of print newspapers.

Fredric Reichel
Santa Monica

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I am extremely disappointed in the “New Look Sports Section.” I can’t believe that you are eliminating box scores and TV listings. I can get this information from other sources, but I prefer having that information consolidated into one newspaper.

I will be canceling my subscription if the box scores and TV listings are not reinstated by the end of July.

Ned Hoffman
Indio

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Is this saving you so much money that it is worth me and others canceling our subscriptions? Shame on you for doing this. You do not really know who subscribes and reads your paper. If you did, you would have never done this. I will cancel my daily paper.

Howard Feldman
Los Angeles

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“You will no longer see box scores, standings and traditional game stories.” Soon you will no longer see a check from me for my subscription.

Ken McIntyre
San Diego

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No more box scores? No more standings? No more game stories?

No more subscription!

Michael Lynn
Valley Glen

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No box scores? No standings? No traditional game stories? Really???

And, based on the first edition of the new Sports section, no golf results, no tennis results, no soccer results, no auto racing results? No team/pitching matchups? No home team upcoming schedules? No sports television lineup? Wow!

I’ve been a subscriber for dozens of years mainly so I can get my daily fix of this information. If this information is no longer being published by The Times, then I suppose that I’ll have to sever my long-term subscription and go elsewhere for my daily fix.

Dana Anderson
Buckeye, Ariz.

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On behalf of us old guys who still read the printed newspaper, is the person who decided to stop publishing box scores, standings and “traditional game stories” in The Times Sports page one of those people who go to a ballgame to do the wave and bat around a beach ball?

Perry Miyake
Los Angeles

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Congratulations of your new and (assuming) stand alone Sports page. It’s been a long time coming. But I’m begging and pleading with you: Please put in the daily schedule of events, box scores and standings. That is the backbone of any Sports page. I’m thrilled for the photos and new story form.... but please, from this longtime Dodgers, Lakers, Kings, track and field fan.... and a subscriber to the L.A. Times for almost 50 years.... make your analog paper a one-stop read and with more information.... not less.

Greg Brandt
Valley Village

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If I am going to go online to get box scores and game summaries, it is not going to be on your website.

Chris Morrow
Westwood

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Your wonderful staff of sports writers, not withstanding, your “new look” is a bad look.

Mike Krose
Silver Lake

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As a subscriber to the Los Angeles Times for over 50 years, I must say that I’m sorry to see my Sports section go the way of the dodo bird. Your once proud publication has now taken on the look of what we refer to a local paper as a “throw away.” I guess your Sports editor never heard the expression, “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.”

Steve Horvitz
Los Angeles

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Well, that’s torn it! Are you really serious? I just received my latest billing for the next eight-week cycle. I’m throwing it in the trash! I’ll let my remaining balance play out and then that’s it. I’ve been a loyal subscriber to The Times for over 50 years, but your paper just isn’t worth it anymore. So goodbye to a formerly great newspaper.

Lyle Dale
Santa Ana

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Your Sports section writers are award-winning caliber and possess skills to prepare lengthy magazine material. But The Times is a newspaper and should contain sports news.

Ken Barasch
Villa Park

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This section is an embarrassment for a major metropolitan paper.

David Cianchetti
Claremont

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If I wanted another sports magazine, I would have ordered Sports Illustrated.

Sharon Shilkoff
Woodland Hills

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After being a loyal Times subscriber for the last 58 years, I have officially canceled my online and paper subscriptions. Once your Sports section dropped scores and standings that did it for me.

Michael Gray
Yorba Linda

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I’ve had many people tell me over the years that the newspaper industry was a dying breed, but for me personally Sunday, July 9, 2023, was the official death date.

So long, old friend, it was a hell of a ride.

Mike Haubrich
Long Beach

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Why did the April Fool’s edition of the Sports section arrive three months late?

Bennett Beebe
Westwood

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Dear readers:

Thank you for subscribing and sharing your thoughts about our changes. Recent staff reductions and an upcoming change to our printing press forced us to adopt early deadlines and we no longer can deliver box scores, standings or game results in the print edition. We also cannot provide box scores due to lack of staff resources.

However, we have worked to reinstate TV listings and our local sports calendar many of you said were essential. We are providing instructions that will be published daily on this page about how to sign up for our newsletter that contains limited standings and TV listings. We’re also providing a link and QR code to help you access our daily live coverage of local games and matches via our website and our app.

We hope that these adjustments, along with strong work by our reporters, columnists, photographers, designers and editors, will continue to reward you for subscribing to The Times.

Iliana Limón Romero
Sports editor

The Los Angeles Times welcomes expressions of all views. Letters should be brief and become the property of The Times. They may be edited and republished in any format. Each must include a valid mailing address and telephone number. Pseudonyms will not be used.

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