Two veteran South Florida sports columnists who lost their jobs at rival newspapers this year say the cuts left them stunned and worried about the future of the business.
Dave Hyde, formerly of the Sun Sentinel, said his layoff was jarring. His farewell column ran in late June. Three months later, his longtime friend Greg Cote wrote a similar column for the Miami Herald after he was let go. Cote spent 54 years at the Herald, starting as a part-time high school employee.
The two men once worked together at the Herald before Hyde moved to the Sun Sentinel. Hyde was 28 when he became a sports columnist, a post he described as lifetime work at the time.
Both said readership has dropped and newsroom staffs keep shrinking. Cote said readers who remain are the ones who lose most from the cuts.
In a conversation with CBS News Miami anchor Jim Berry, a former sports reporter, the pair looked back on controversial columns. Cote recalled a piece suggesting the Miami Dolphins consider trading Dan Marino for draft picks. He said he walked into the locker room the next day to face the people he had written about.
