Outsourced to India, huh?

Yeah, the News here in Denver axed their film critic many months ago. It's a bad time to be in the newspaper business.

Ansen was part of a mass layoff at Newsweek, of over a hundred staffers:

http://radaronline.com/exclusives/2008/03/newsweek-buyouts-writers-david-ansen-gates.php

The major critics like everything. The irrelevant critics like nothing. The average person enjoys shit, and the rest are usually have something better to do with their time.

It's a conundrum, yo!

Newsweek should totally hire me. I have an iPhone.

Er, scratch that are. I'm sick. Forgive me.

Poe, we know you're sick; tell us something we don't know.

Dear Slog,

It's been 50 minutes since your last post. I rely on you for my time-wasting needs, and when you're this slow, I get very bored. Please take this into consideration.

Love always,

Aislinn

I know! At least let us pay our respects due to Josh Feit.

The consolidation of media outlets under the umbrella of a few major corporations has driven a lot of people out of work.

And, while I support the democratic concept of "blogs" the amount of content people are creating for free is playing into this as well. I was told by someone at a technology company recently that they don't have to hire writers for their documentation because there are bloggers out there willing to do the work for them for free.

FWIW, Ansen was neither axed nor part of a major series of layoffs. He (and the rest) opted for an early retirement program, and a pretty damn sweet one, if Radar is to be believed.

uh, the early retirement program WAS in lieu of forced layoffs. If not enough people had taken it, there WOULD have been people axed.

unless the grid collapses, print media is toast.

and papier mache artists and birdcages will be up the creek without a paddle.

1)I pity Mr Poe...you know he's sick when he makes shitty typos; that's not his style. Boning lean muscled, hairy chested, 45 year old banker/daddies in $1500 suits behind WaMu IS his style, but sloppy errors in typing and grammar, no...
2)Yeah, why can't we comment on Josh's goodbye? Is someone afraid the Sloggers were going to rag on him? We wouldn't do that; we LIKE Josh!

Now, if it was ECB...

And Michael Strangeways, you know that because ...? There's no indication Ansen would have been canned -- in fact, as one of the most popular writers in the mag, it's highly unlikely he would have -- and the company hadn't announced any layoff plans.

Frankly, critics like Ansen who review one movie a week are dinosaurs and due for extinction anyway. I'm not saying his leaving is a good thing, but it doesn't make sense for a media company to be paying someone, anyone, six figures to write 500 to 800 words a week.

because that's what buy outs are for; a humane way to clean house without having to fire people. (plus it's a tax write off and good p.r.) Newsweek wasn't offering early retirement out of the goodness of their heart. Believe me, if enough people HADN'T taken the buy out, there would have been firings. Maybe not Ansen; he has a name, but lesser names would have definitely gotten the heave-ho.

So that would mean Josh got canned, too? Say, I'll bet the Stranger offers one heckuva buyout/severance package.

@15 - well, if you call a 6 pack of Oly and a pack of smokes a package, yeah ...

Potato, potato.

@17 i love that you typed out a phrase that only has meaning when it is pronounced verbally

I don't expect real journalism from Slog (or The Stranger, for that matter), but could we get a little accuracy, Annie? Ansen wasn't "axed"; he took a buyout. Big difference.