Rich Hofmann Named New Sports Editor of Daily News

The longtime columnist — who has been at thepaper for 35 years — will take over for the retiring Chuck Bausman.

The Philadelphia Daily News announced today that longtime sports columnist Rich Hofmann will become the new executive sports editor of the newspaper. The paper sent out a memo earlier today; the news went public when Bob Vetrone (better known as Boop) tweeted it.

Chuck Bausman, executive sports editor of the paper since 2012, plans to retire. The transition will take place sometime this month.

Hofmann will be with the Daily News 35 years on April 1st. He started at the paper when he was still a senior at Penn, filling in on the copy desk due to an illness. (The position was officially designated “full-time, temporary.”) The best wordsmith on the DN staff, Hofmann has covered virtually every Philadelphia sport for the paper. He’s been a columnist for decades now.

“I still believe we have the best sports section in town, that the experience of our writers is unmatched, frankly,” Hofmann told us earlier today. “The newspaper business is more challenging than it used to be and everybody knows that, but we have great guys who know where the bodies are buried … the job is to let them use that knowledge and get out of the way.”

Marcus Hayes Daily News ad

The Daily News has been running an ad campaign that echoes Hofmann’s sentiments.

A memo sent to the Daily News staff said Bausman is retiring to spend time with his “greatest teammate, Debbie,” who will also retire at the end of the next school year. Also: He plans to golf.

“In 35 years at the Daily News, most spent as one of the nation’s best sports columnists, Rich has become the voice most respected by the members of the sports department,” The Daily NewsMichael Days and Pat McLoone said in the memo sent to staff. “More recently, Rich has shown great talent in innovative ways to brings sports to our readers, both in print and digitally. His skills and experience as a journalist, his reputation in the Daily News newsroom, and his intelligence for innovation and multimedia ideally suit him to lead our first-class sports staff into the future.”

Management at the papers has made cuts to the Daily News in recent months. Writers Jake Kaplan (now a Phillies beat writer) and Aaron Carter (who covers high schools) were moved over to the Inky. The DN is also in a hiring freeze.

Hofmann’s son, Rich Hofmann Jr., works at The Philly Voice.

Follow @dhm on Twitter.