Soon after The Wall Street Journal announced plans to launch a metro New York section next month comes word that the News Corp. paper plans to assign reporters to cover local sports teams, according to the New York Observer.

At a time when numerous newspapers are cutting back on such beats, including the nearby Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., the Journal reportedly plans to have beat reporters at home games and on the road for a handful of teams.

“The Journal's New York sports section will assign beat reporters to the major local sports teams, including the Mets, Yankees, Jets, Giants and the Knicks, sources said. They'll be credentialed for home games, and they'll travel to road games,” the Observer reports.

It also notes: “In the old days, a young Journal reporter may have dreamed of a day when he landed a Citigroup executive as a source; now, for a portion of the staff, victory is breaking through with the third-base coach. The Journal has hired Jim Baumbach from Newsday as their lead Yankees reporter and Mike Sielski of the Calkins Media newspaper chain as their Mets reporter, said sources. The Big Lead sports blog reported that Aditi Kinkhabwala of the Record, Scott Cacciola of the Commercial Appeal and Sophia Hollander have all been hired as well.”

What's next? Comics? Don't be surprised.