Bloodbath at the Chronicle - 10/30/07 The first sign of trouble was an email yesterday from longtime Houston Chronicle art critic Patty Johnson that she was leaving the paper... turns out she's not the only one: a bunch of features writers have either been laid off or offered severance packages, including Louis Parks and Bruce Westbrook, both of whom covered film.
Looks like the Chronicle (which did not return a phone call for comment) is cutting feature writing to stringers and becoming even less relevant, less sophisticated, and less out of touch with what's interesting in the city. There is no expectation that a salaried art critic will be brought on board to replace Johnson, so we can all look forward to coverage of major shows at major museums, and little more -- beyond the grotesque T.M.I. and other coverage that assumes the worst of the readership -- and delivers it.
*If I may digress off the topic of art, the cloyingly named "Flavor" section every Wednesday is an abomination for anyone who knows anything about food.
via Glasstire
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
I'm Totally Jacking Rainey
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6 comments:
Dear Rainey,
Maybe you shouldn't "digress" into the "grotesque" and stick to what you know, which I doubt has anything to do with working year after year for a newspaper and seeing your friends and longtime coworkers pushed aside by the call of profits.
Because it hurts. But what do you care? Makes for a juicy item! And you should know that the more exclamation points you use, the more exciting it gets! Let's pile it on with a couple or three more for good measure to make sure the Chron people feel like real shit!!!
-- Scarlett O.
This is good from the perspective of media roles and should be expected. As the Chronicle becomes less relevant consumers must become more intrepid. Independent media will fill the vacuum.
"Good from the perspective of media roles" ... ?
WTF?
Of course consumers should be intrepid and indie media is great, but there's nothing "good" going on here.
The Chronicle is effectively giving up market share of Humanities coverage. This creates opportunity for independent media and a diversification of the news power structure which can only lead to better local reporting. FYI, The Chron has been owned by a multinational media conglomerate, Hearst, as in William Randolph, since 87. The Post went out of circulation in 88.
DIY.
The Post went out of business in 1995.
News people know these things.
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