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<font size="2"><font face="Arial"><font class="text">Controversial columnist Jay Mariotti resigns from Chicago Sun-Times</font></font></font></font></font></font></h1> <h2><font size="2"><font face="Arial"><font class="text"><font size="2"><font face="Arial"><font class="text">
Columnist bemoans sports journalism now 'a Web site business'</font></font></font></font></font></font></h2> <dl class="byline"> <dd><font size="2"><font face="Arial"><font class="text"><font size="2"><font face="Arial"><font class="text">
<span class="story-byline">By Jim Kirk</span> <span>|</span> <span class="story-titleline">Chicago Tribune reporter</span></font></font></font></font></font></font></dd> <dd><font size="2"><font face="Arial"><font class="text"><font size="2"><font face="Arial"><font class="text">
<span class="story-dateline">August 27, 2008</span></font></font></font></font></font></font></dd> </dl> <div id="story-body-parent"> <p id="story-body" style="CLEAR: left"><font size="2"><font face="Arial"><font class="text"><font size="2"><font face="Arial"><font class="text">
<span class="story-dateline">Jay Mariotti, the opinionated and polarizing sports columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, has resigned after 17 years with the paper, he told the Tribune on Tuesday night.
Just back from Beijing, where he covered the Olympics, Mariotti said in a phone interview that he decided to quit after it became clear while in China that sports journalism had become "entirely a Web site business. There were not many newspapers there." He added that most of the journalists covering the Games were "there writing for Web sites."
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