• by Ray Schultz , July 16, 2023

The Los Angeles Times is shaking up its sports section and will no longer offer box scores, TV listings or a daily calendar.  

The paper announced last week that it is “introducing a new era for the Los Angeles Times sports section.”

It adds, “The printed sports section will take on the look and feel of a daily sports magazine, with a different design showcasing our award-winning reporting and photography. 

Specifically, the most “immediate and important effect is they're not going to be covering in the next morning's newspaper the events of the night before, observes David Folkenflik, reporting on NPR. “They can't because they've pushed their deadlines back to 3 p.m. Pacific Time. But it also means they're not really assigning their journalists to be covering the day-to-day game results and events.”

The L.A. Times advises readers, “You can still find local game results, breaking news, instant analysis, commentary and more as games and tournaments are unfolding at latimes.com/sports and via our L.A. Times app. And please sign up for our sports report newsletter at latimes.com/newsletters to get the latest developments delivered to your email inbox early each morning.

Meanwhile, The New York Times announced last week that it is disbanding its sports department and will rely on coverage of teams and games from its website The Athletic. 

But this has raised questions about practices.

For instance, sports journalists at The Athletic “are allowed, if they cover the worlds of betting and gambling, to gamble on sports events, to sort of understand how that industry trade works,” Folkenflik says. “That's something that's been prohibited for years at The New York Times.”