Bumped. I am changing the title of this post to wish Dohn good luck from all of us here on Bruins Nation. We have had our share of disagreement with Dohn. They are well documented and archived here on BN. There are issues when it comes to culture of UCLA athletics and community, Dohn was never in sync with us here on BN and we also had concerns with number of his reports. That said we always appreciated his hard work and he has always been very cordial in our exchanges with him off this blog. We wish him luck. Plus its always nice for a kid to go home. Good luck Brian. GO BRUINS. -N
In a shocking development, UCLA beat writer Brian Dohn is leaving the Daily News. He and his family are moving back to New Jersey:
I began covering UCLA in the summer of 2003, and in the last six years I made some great friends, ticked off some folks and had a bevy of wonderful experiences.
With a lot of excitement looking ahead and some sadness, for what I am leaving behind, I wanted to let everyone know I am leaving the Daily News. My family and I are moving back to New Jersey.
Within the next week and for those interested, I will get word out a about my new gig, which is not UCLA related. Right now is not the correct timing for me to say what it is.
I want to thank everyone for all the great times I had covering UCLA, and the incredible success of this blog. The experiences I had covering UCLA are things I will always remember.
Obviously, all of us who frequent BN had our problems with Dohn. At times he appeared to poorly research the history of UCLA football and had ridiculous expectations for the program. Moreover, he would tease fans about certain recruiting stories, and never would expand on topics that he clearly had more info about. He sometimes came off as a chicken. Many of his opinions were off-base, and it showed during his (in)famous question and answer posts.
But as strictly a beat writer, I always thought Dohn was excellent. His 'Inside UCLA' blog constantly updated us on the latest news and gave us the perspectives of players and coaches. His articles in the newspaper were solidly written and insightful. I for one will miss him. I certainly won't miss some of his opinions, but I will miss his reporting and dedication to covering UCLA. He gave it his all.
Good luck in your future endeavors, Dohn.
Sidenote: I will be very interested to see who the Daily News chooses to replace Dohn. I think it would almost be unfair to select Jill Painter because of some of the abuse she has taken while filling in for Dohn on the blog. She deserves better than having to deal with those fools. I am of the opinion that the choice should be someone who is a UCLA alum. What do you guys think?