I see that the New York Press, parakeet-cage liner to the Four Hundred, has started to run The Straight Dope again!
Now that reptilian ex-publisher Russ Smith (aka MUGGER) has sold out and sold his employees down the river, it looks like there might be some actual content to this smarmy little rag again. Smith’s name has been reduced to “Staff Writer” on the masthead, and we can only hope that his hideous weekly Clinton-bashing (yes, still) Bush-upsucking My-kids-sure-are-cute-and-let-me-tell-you-all-about-our-vacation-in Bermuda column will eventually fade away in the gloaming.
Years ago, NYP ran all sorts of decent syndicated material, but Smith weaseled out of paying nominal syndication fees and most of the good stuff disappeared. Looks like the new management is more willing to pony up cash for content which rises above the lowest common denominator.
Not only has Uncle Cecil returned, so has the fine underground cartoonist Carol Lay and her “Story Minute.” If they can just get “Dykes to Watch Out For” back, and shitcan the highly unpleasant “Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles,” this free paper will once again be worthy of the energy expended to lean down and pick up!
Despite my listed location, I have been in exile in South Jersey for the past few months, and haven’t kept up with the Press in a while, but I did notice Smith’s reduced role recently. Uke, could you fill me in on the details you alluded to regarding his position on the paper?
I’m a little sketchy on the details. The serious NY media tends to ignore the NY Press as a shrill reactionary Village Voice wannabe, so there wasn’t any coverage that I saw outside of the Press itself.
Looks like Smith sold the paper at the end of 2002…a lot of staff got the axe, including the not-wholly moronic editor John Strausbaugh. The current masthead lists some jamoke called Charles D. Colletti as the President and Publisher, Doug Meadow as the Chief Operating Officer, and Lisa Kearns as Editor.
Many of the usual gang of talentless scribblers are still on duty, including Jim Knipfel, Christopher Caldwell, Jonathan Ames, George Tabb, and those two losers they got reviewing movies.
Yay! I was always afraid that Cecil got bumped so Smith could have another half page to add to his eight or so pages of blathering about whatever crossed the three synapses that constitute his mind.
Lately, the only reason spend the effort to open the door of the green box was William Bryk’s “Old Smoke” column every other week (which is superb). However, the thought of running across the odious “Mr. Wiggles” sometimes stayed my hand.
The return of Cecil and Carol Lay means I will again feel good about paying the cover price of NY Press again.
Can you specify names on the italicized stuff? Our local weeklies lost two people to NYC over the last few years – and it was no great loss; the reviewers were full of themselves and tended to do movie reviews not based on the movie but on whether it fit their own personal prejudices. I almost found them to be touchstones for my tastes, in a weird negative way – if they hated it, I’d like it, and vice versa. :dubious:
samclem,
[Arte Johnson voice]
verrrrrry interesting.
[/Arte Johnson voice]
I pick up the Southern Voice quite regularly, as they seem to have the most thorough coverage of national gay-related news out, and that’s one of my special interests. They bought out a New Orleans gay paper, ran it independently for a short while, briefly brought out another paper to cover the mid-South (Charlotte to Nashville to Montgomery, roughly), then folded both into the Atlanta paper, which barely takes note of New Orleans or the other cities. And there were reports that one or both of the Blades would be closed down as unprofitable about a year ago, though nothing more came of that.
And Chris Crain resigning really disturbed me – Crain was one of the few people one could depend on for thoughtful analysis of issues rather than knee-jerk reactions of one sort or another.
I have no particular reason to dislike Window Media – but I’m not totally sure I trust them.