SIX-FIGURE SPORTS MAN?

One spinoff of the high-pitched competition in which the Morning News and Times Herald are currently engaged is that it is making a handful of high-profile journalists very rich, at least by the newspaper industry’s traditional standards. The most visible writer to profit from the newspaper war so far is sports columnist Skip Bay-less, who was recently hired away from the Morning News by the Times Herald.

Rumors within the Dallas media community put Bay-less’ new annual salary as high as $150,000. It is doubtless lower than that; information from credible sources at the Times Herald and Morning News place it in six figures, including a lump sum $10,000 bonus for signing, plus a car, plus a Las Colinas Country Club membership.

Neither Bayless nor executives of the Times Herald will comment on the salary package. Bayless will only say it is “extremely generous.” Times Herald Managing Editor Jon Katz says reports of Bayless’ salary are grossly exaggerated. “For the first time ever,” says Katz, “I feel sorry for the politicians who get burned by inaccurate reporting.”

When the Times Herald bought Bayless, it not only bought his talents at the typewriter, it also bought the marketing that has been done by the Morning News to make Bayless a household word in Dallas.

“Skip is a very promising writer, but I don’t think they have won anything,” says Morning News Executive Editor Burl Osborne. “Our readership surveys [conducted when Bayless was at the Morning News] showed us that we had definitely gotten our readers to read Skip’s column, but we hadn’t necessarily gotten them to like it. There was a definite negative reaction… Some people thought Skip’s viewpoint was too negative.”

Both Bayless and Osborne profess to still like each other personally, but there appears to be a certain amount of bad blood generated by the move.

“It wasn’t that we couldn’t afford to match the Herald’s offer,” says Osborne. “It’s just that we decided that we shouldn’t match it. I became convinced that the proceedings were taking on the style of a free-agent sports contract … We made him an offer that was fair, and he took it to [Times Herald Executive Editor) Ken Johnson and said, ’What do you want to bid for me?’ “

Bayless denies that the negotiations were conducted in that manner. He says the Herald made him a lucrative offer, but that he didn’t even tell his employers at the Morning News about the dollar amount, but instead negotiated with them about other aspects of his job.

Bayless is somewhat defensive about his salary, admitting that it has brought him a lot of ill will from the rank and file reporters at both papers. Some midlevel editors at both newspapers are making $25,000 a year and under. “What I wish they’d realize is that it is not just good for me,” says Bayless. “This spinoff of the newspaper war generally raises the going price for all writers in this market… This newspaper is not run by fools; the people who run this paper have decided that I am worth the salary that I am getting. That establishes my value in this market.”

Osborne disagrees: “He says it establishes his value, but it only establishes his price. Anybody who has bought a used car can tell you there is a difference between what they paid for it and what they find it is worth.”