Jennifer Abel, whose columns once ran in the Hartford Advocate -- the Hartford Courant's alt weekly paper, which features everything the Courant wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole (snarky commentary on local politics, blatantly opinionated reporting, sex advice, personal ad sections advertising themselves with taglines like "Because you can't spank yourself," the weekly "Free Will Horoscope" -- all the good stuff) -- has been laid off.
Luckily, she has a blog. She also has another, slightly more professional blog featuring clips of her published work, where those who had come to look forward to her columns each week can get deep into the archives and find themselves satisfied.
Still. There's no excuse for this.
To the paper that claims to advocate for the people of Greater Hartford, I say this: Damn you, Hartford Advocate. Damn you to becoming an increasingly less-good paper.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Yeah that paper sucks. I know because I write for it. They canned my editor too and promoted the guy who writes about cars to managing editor...
I'm not one to denounce an alt weekly -- any alt weekly -- that wants to cater to central CT, and I generally enjoy reading the Advocate. Which makes me even more pissed off when I see things like mass layoffs of writers I liked (and reflecting an only-management-could-do-this level of incompetence in choosing who to lay off, as you indicate) at a paper I know isn't the priority of its parent company, anyway.
I'm not sure why snarky critique is a secondary concern for papers like the Courant group (whatever else that includes), especially when the Onion and the Daily Show and other "We're sarcastic and unapologetic" publications are so relatively popular. You'd think this would be one area where print media could be picking up (younger) readers instead of losing them.
I hear the Courant is likely to be sold, soon. Any word on that, oh mystery advocate writer? (Care to be my personal magic 8-ball where the HC is concerned?)
Post a Comment