Eric Branch Leaving Santa Rosa Press Democrat

Eric definitely had the best writing style, the best kind of “blogger”. I don’t know that he always gave the most information, because he probably didn’t have the access, but his style of writing and angles were second to none in regards to the 49er beat.

I wonder where he is going to end up. Would like to continue reading his articles.

Glad I got to chit chat with him throughout this offseason and see what’s next for him

I never read a single one of his articles/blogs.
(I was soured when Maiocco left and read only Barrows).
But now I really regret it…hope he keeps covering the 49ers so I can give it another shot.

In some of Phil’s articles, he wrote about the 49ers as if they were a joke. Which is difficult to argue against with our unique way of doing things.

Of Maiocco, Barrows and Branch, Eric was the best writer in my opinion. I’ll miss reading his stuff.

This is my final blog for The Santa Rosa Press Democrat. I will resurface at another publication in the near future.

As for me, hopefully this isn’t goodbye, but it’s see you in the future.

And, hopefully, we’ll be discussing the impending start of football — on the field — when we meet again.

That makes it sound like he’s going to keep covering the 49ers. One newspaper that doesn’t currently have a 49ers beat reporter? The San Francisco Chronicle — David White left to become a preacher.

Just a thought. But that would be a huge get for the Chronicle. I think Branch is one of the better writers in covering football.

What I find interesting is that, in the age of Twitter, I tend not to even notice which companies these guys work for. Before Twitter, which really isn’t that long ago, you had to go to the Press Democrat website, or the Chron website, or whatever, to read these guys, but now, you may not even have noticed Maiocco had moved organisations if you follow him on Twitter, unless you happened to notice the new screenname or clicked any of his links.

Personally, I like Barrows the best out of all of them. And I know he works for the Sac Bee, but if he moved elsewhere, I wouldn’t care, as long as his reporting on Twitter remained as good. Twitter and the Nuggets are all you need to keep on top of Niners news, although anyone using Google+ should know there is a section called ‘sparks’ where you put in areas of interest, and if you put in 49ers, it delivers a river of Niners news into your Google+ homepage, presumably from Google News aggregators.

for his stories on the personal lives of the players and coaches. His writing skills are excellent in spinning a story that draws you in and gives you the feeling of a deeper connection to the team. That is his gift, being the color guy of print reporting.