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Phoenix editor: We're not dead yet
By adamg on Sun, 10/07/2012 - 11:47am
We think we'll go for a walk, Phoenix declares, in response to some Salon body collector.
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Comments
The piece was on Salon,not Slate.
http://www.salon.com/2012/10/06/goodbye_alt_weeklies/
That being said, I've never actually read the obituary of a once great alt-weekly before it was really dead. The writer took umbrage at Salon's characterization of the Phoenix as having "vanished"
Why?
The Boston Phoenix I grew up with vanished years ago. Replaced with a rag that was merely an afterthought in the more profitable business of selling flesh and script. Also, I'd much rather read Joan Walsh or Glenn Greenwald any day that that fucking moron Chris Faraone.
Seriously, in a piece where you have the audacity to criticize the writers at Salon, you have the gall to think one stoned idiot's attempt to make a cottage industry of getting high in Dewey Square is more important than Greenwald's incredible work on the erosion of civil rights and privacy laws in America? "Career threatening injuries"? What, Faraone never heard of Dragon?
When the Phoenix eventually folds, dollars to donuts this guy will be begging Salon and Gawker for a job.
Last I heard, Salon won't be
Last I heard, Salon won't be around much longer.
People have been saying that about Salon ...
... since the dotcom crash of 2001ish, and maybe even before that. It's still here.
Salon, check
Thanks, fixed.
will the last one out please turn off the lights?
Glenn Greenwald went to the Guardian, I believe. Who's left at Salon?
Unfortunately Salon has been
Unfortunately Salon has been a shadow of it's former self since the dot.com crash. In it's heyday it had a variety of voices that wrote some fairly lengthy, thoughtful pieces.
There were some fairly experienced writers and some new voices. I recall fondly the women at "Mothers who Think" column that offered some great perspectives.
The Phoenix has been a joke for a number of years. At one time, it was a must read paper for anyone who wanted to be informed.
Phoenix RIP
David Thorpe's jokes about shitty aught bands are tiresome and repetitive.
Chris Faraone's RNC on acid-Hunter S. Thompson-wannabe schtick is like the annoying high school kid who brags about the drugs he's done because he's desperate to impress people about what a badass he is.
The Stuff stuff is lame.
I do like David Bernstein, Karl Stevens, and MC Slim.
I kinda thought Doig's take
I kinda thought Doig's take was mostly accurate, with a few obvious problems. The Phoenix has/had been trying to be more regional, less Boston, for years. If anything, they seem to be retracting, so taking "Boston" out of the name seems more like a last attempt at regionalism than a disassociation with the city. And as someone who never liked Stuff-- trite, stupid, NYwannabee, and I used to work for a former editor who did nothing to disabuse me of that take-- I don't like the Stuffyness of the new Phoenix. Stuff was silly, and not even in a fun how-to-have-mindblowing-orgasms articles way. I do not give a rat's ass about the party circuit, but lucky for me, all those articles look just like the new overload of fashion and flavored vodka ads so my eyes reject them anyway. It is nice not getting the particularly crappy newsprint all over my hands anymore.
And Salon has Alex Pareene and Joan Walsh. Pareene wrote a wonderful book on Mitt that is both amusing and should be mandatory reading this campaign season. He's funny and surprising. Joan writes smart articles on politics, something print and web and other media journalism has been missing.
That said, I still read the Phoenix weekly. It has David Bernstein and yeah, I like The Big Hurt. It still has better restaurant reviews than anyone else in town, and still publishes the occasional Dan Kennedy piece. And I always like to read Harvey Silverglate, even when he's wrong. And I usually like Carly Carioli.
Alt weeklies are dying, and that sucks. Alts were the petri dish a thousand great writers came from, and covered some important stories before the big dailies could touch them: see the Phoenix beating the Globe to coverage of the Catholic child sex abuse scandal. Alt veterans Frank Rich and Fran Lebowitz are speaking at Harvard on Wednesday. I still turn to Washington City Paper and the Blade if I actually want to know what's happening in my old neighborhood. BUT the web can do much of what alts (and dailies) do much better. They do have to transform to live. Carly may not want to see how true that has been of the Phoenix, and I cannot blame him, but if he saw it from the consumer's end he wouldn't be able to miss it.