You can tell the newspaper business is cratering and that newspaper execs have poor judgment when an extraordinary obits editor is given his walking papers.
The article "Obits editor among redundancies at the Daily Telegraph" that was published today - Dec. 1, 2008 - in The Guardian of London says:
The Daily Telegraph's obituaries editor, Andrew McKie, is among the first departures in the latest round of redundancies from the Telegraph Media Group.
McKie was given notice at lunchtime on Friday and has already left the Telegraph Media Group building in Victoria.
This is a travesty!
4 comments:
No job is safe, not even for those of us who write obituaries. People will always die, someone has to write about them. Who I wonder if the newspapers' hierarchy rule differently.
Adam Bernstein, Washington Post obits editor, says:
Andrew was a singular figure in the obit world. This is miserable news to those who knew him and to those readers who will no longer benefit from his deft editing. I wish his successor only good thoughts, but this is a personal loss as well as a professional one.
Tim Bullamore reports:
I've spoken to Andrew today, who is in good spirits and sends his best wishes. He has many irons in the fire...
The new Telegraph obits editor is Harry de Quetteville. Hopefully we'll meet him in due course.
There's a very cold wind blowing in newspaper land...
Tim
Sadly, I expect many newspapers to stop running staff or freelance obits in the near future, and just switch to the paid family-written obit ads. As far as the beancounters are concerned, content means squat. Benjamins are king.
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