You Can’t Take It With You, Thank God: Ex-Inky Writer’s Picnic Populated With Happy, Well-Adjusted, Smart People
Maybe you noticed the Inky’s little note in the Editorials on Sunday, explaining the impending end of the Image and Neighbors sections. Not to fear, Craig LaBan’s food reviews will find a new home in Arts & Entertainment (we were thinking Comics, next to Zits), and the fashion and wedding columns will be moved to a new Wednesday section named “Style & Soul”, both of which the Inquirer seems to be lacking right now. Now we’ve known for weeks about the impending section cuts, but timing is everything, and this public announcement coincides with a weirdly Welcome Back, Kotter moment from last weekend.
You can read all about about a reunion of Inky writers from the Gene Roberts era (1972-1990, sort of the Last Golden Age for Print Media), on the Tree House Media Project, a site founded by ex-Inky reporter/editor Rich Heidorn Jr. dedicated to helping print-only writers realize their impending death and finally go out and buy that MacBook. Well, THMP was there covering the reunion, and besides noting famous alums like Buzz Bissinger, Mark Bowden, and Tim Weiner, Heidorn asked the writers of yesterday how to prepare for tomorrow. (View the old gang’s advice for Bill Marimow in the video clip at right, courtesy THMP.) Their answer: The Internet is your friend, use it. Philly.com should be more than a holding pen for Larry Mendte stories (ahem, see post below), and should be outlined like an actual front page. Apparently, the old timers aren’t wearing the standard Inky rose-collored shades, and realize that the Internet can’t save the Inky, but can help it sustain long enough for us to keep making fun of it.
Tree House Media Project: Seriously, Does Your Brain Grow Only When You Leave The Inquirer?
