The Globe‘s Chad Finn reported in his media column on Thursday that colleague and New England Patriots’ beat writer Mike Reiss will be departing the Globe and joining ESPNBoston, the sports network’s second city-specific site.

Reiss joins Marc J. Spears, who recently left to join Yahoo! Sports.

The first city-specific site to launch was ESPNChicago, which debuted in mid-April. The Boston site is scheduled to be active on Sept. 14. 

The national network is trying to make a local brand for itself, and it will also be competing with the Globe‘s online website, Boston.com, as well as WEEI.com.

Globe editor, Martin Baron had this to say about Reiss, who joined the staff in July of 2005, after serving on the Metro West Daily News:

“We’re very sorry to lose Mike Reiss. But talent runs deep in our sports staff. We’ll draw on the other great sports journalists who work here, and we’ll bring in some new talent, too.”

Interesting.

Along with Reiss, whose sole focus was the Patriots, is Christopher L. Gasper. Does this mean Gasper will be promoted to Patriots’ beat writer, and another writer will be brought in? 

Will the other name be a big ticket one? And if so, would Gasper be bumped?

ESPNBoston definitely did its homework though, and recruited the right guy to provide in-depth coverage of the Pats. 

So with Reiss leaving, does this mean his blog, Reiss’s Pieces will go with him too? Obviously Boston.com will have to change that.

Just another day in the world wide changing sports media industry and, not surprisingly, The Boston Globe.