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Rich Hammond broke new ground when he left the Daily News three years ago to blog about the Los Angeles Kings for the Kings. He was the first pro journalist locally to be employed by a team to report independently on the beat. The Kings at the time just felt they needed to pay a reporter to cover the beat full-time since no other media would go on the road with the Kings. Well, Hammond just announced on Facebook that he's going to cover USC for the Orange County Register.
I’m excited to announce that I will be joining The Orange County Register to cover USC athletics. I had a great three-year run with LAKings.com, but sometimes making a change is the right thing to do, and I’m excited about having something challenging and rewarding in my future. Thanks to Todd Harmonson, David Bean, Brian Patterson and all my friends (and new teammates) at the Register for giving me this opportunity. I’m honored to be joining such a great group of journalists. A huge thanks, also, to my many friends in the Kings organization. They were outstanding partners for three years, and I couldn’t have asked for more.
Earlier the Register hired Jeff Fletcher, formerly of AOL and the LA Times, to staff the Dodgers beat, and has been hiring up on the news side too.
