Neate Sager exits

Neate Sager, a multi-talented Ottawa Sun newsman with a passion for sports, has made his exit from Sun Media.

The seven-year Sun Media staffer tells TSF: "I left on my own good terms, same as Donna Casey (a former 12-year reporter who also quit the Ottawa Sun earlier this month.)"

"I am happy to have gone out on my own good terms and can only empathize with some much more talented journalists who were not so fortunate, but are still standing."

Sager, widely known in North American sports circles for his popular non-Sun Out of Left Field blog, has moved on to Yahoo! Sports Canada, where he is the new junior hockey blogger.

The Yahoo! Sports Canada contract offer came two weeks ago after Sager worked for them during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics on a blog called Fourth-Place Medal. He says American sportswriters recommended him.

"It was the best professional experience I have ever had," Sager tells TSF. "Earlier this month, they offered me a contract as their new junior hockey blogger and I started April 15. Finished up at the Sun on April 18."

Another recent sports high for Sager was covering the 2010 Canadian university men's basketball championship.

"I was able to write and do video for the Sun, do colour commentary for five games (including the final) for Streaming Sports Network Canada and provide blog and Twitter updates for my followers."

Sager's media career began with Sun/Bowes at the Portage la Prairie Daily Graphic, where he worked from 2002 to 2004 as a sports reporter/photographer. He also worked at the Simcoe Reformer as a sports/night news editor from 2004 to 2006.

"Of course, all during this time I was doing at least one blog, first with Out of Left Field and The CIS Blog, which James Mirtle, the Globe and Mail's Toronto Maple Leafs reporter, and I launched in 2007.

"I also did a fair bit of broadcasting for Streaming Sports Network Canada."

Sager must be shouting "Yahoo" these days, now that his time is fully committed to his love of sports.

All the best, Neate.