A Great City Deserves a Great Publication

Unless you, like Fairdale Bigfoot, live under a rock, you heard the news that Gannett absolutely gutted the Courier-Journal yesterday, laying off 50 employees, 24 of them editorial staff. Goodbye Velocity, goodbye a lot of the Neighborhood coverage.  Arts and uber-local reporting... gutted.

As Roommate tweeted today: "From out here in the docks, it looks like the @courierjournal has become 'Sports Unillustrated.'"

And apologies to the terrific sports staff at the C-J, especially those I am "twitter friends" with, but yes... Roommate is right.  I don't know if any of the sports staff got the sack, but it has long irked me that when you pull up the C-J website, the very first section is sports.  Before local news. Shows you where the editorial priorities are.  And I love sports, I do. But that's embarrassing.

I'm not fool enough to believe that the C-J made that layout choice in a vacuum. I know I live in a sports-obsessed town, and most of the time I'm pleased as punch that I do. But it is a decision, and it's a terrible one in my opinion. If newspapers were all about catering to the masses, every paper would be People Magazine, or at best USA Today-- all Kardashians and Fantasy Football.

Anyway, based on the unscientific evidence of my Twitter feed, lots of Louisvillagers were just heartbroken about this decision. And I was surprised how very hard I took it myself.  I only know one of the laid-off editorial staffers (I think) personally. So this wasn't about just hurting very badly for a friend (although, I was).  And honestly, I haven't subscribed to the paper for years (before you say I'm part of the problem: [a] we all know subscription money doesn't keep papers in business and [b] I read it regularly online). I've always been disappointed with the C-J, especially coming here from New Orleans when the Times-Picayune was cranking out its post-Katrina consistent brilliance.

But I felt sad for personal reasons too. My first job out of college was as the Assistant to the Editor of this newspaper. (I'd never been to the website before. I briefly got insanely excited when I saw the archive section... but the archives start 10 years after I worked there, give or take.) In addition to running around doing crazy errands for the Diva Editor, I also worked as an entertainment reporter.  My "beat"?  Foxwoods Casino.  Highlights of my job: interviewing Tom Jones and Ted Neeley ("Jesus" from Jesus Christ Superstar), writing my only front-page piece about the music scene in Mystic, CT, and covering the Mashantucket Pequot tribe's cultural news.  I hated every part of my job except the arts reporting. I loved the arts reporting. And occasionally when I get antsy about my chosen field (as I am right now), I kick myself for not pursuing that as my career (hence, this blog).

And Gannett mauled its arts reporting today.

A great city deserves a great publication. And we just don't have one.

Normally I would say: "I may be biased because I know this person personally and can't distance myself from her work." But no. I won't add that disclaimer. One of the laid-off editorial staff was Erin Keane, and I can empirically say that she was one of the best, if not the best, writers at the C-J. Her arts reporting was grown-up, sophisticated writing for readers who were invested in the fabulous Louisville arts scene. Her articles were beautifully-conceived, well-researched, and often challenging.  I will fess up to having to employ Dictionary.com a couple of times when her diction eluded me. When I finally met her after reading her reporting for a while, I was honestly a little fan-girly.  Hell, how many times over the years have I written a theater review and linked to her review and said, "I can't say it better than Erin Keane already did"??

For the C-J to lay off its most literate and literary writer?-- it's an insult to the readership.

My heart broke for her, personally.  But my heart breaks for this city.

I'll say it again. A great city deserves a great publication. And we just don't have one.

The LEO is... fine.  I admit, I read it rarely.  I don't know what the general public sentiment is, but my gut says that it went a bit south post-Stephen George and when it went glossy (and when it lost Phillip M. Bailey to WFPL).  Louisville Magazine has a stable of solid writers but only features a handful of good articles each month.  I don't think anyone would argue with me if I said that the magazine was 85% advertising of some kind. There's some quality reporting being done on some of the local blogs, but no one in their right mind would call it quality writing.

It was a sad day for Louisville.  And a disconcerting day for me.  I never in a blue moon thought that I would remake myself as an arts reporter this late in my life, but to discover that the newspaper in my city had such a low regard for arts and local reporting... terrible.

You Gotta Love Calvin

The CJ is the first to feature the SI cover with Calvin Borel and Mine That Bird.

The CJ gets all Artsy

I haven’t had a chance to pick up today’s copy of the Courier Journal, but apparently it’s quite the big deal. It is, literally, a work of art.

Just yesterday, the folks on NPR were talking about the possible demise of the Boston Globe. The BOSTON FRAKING GLOBE!?!! Amazing. And today our CJ, rarely a paper to admire, does something remarkable. Check it out. Save it. It’s bound to be a collectable.

Here’s the article about the new artwithoutwalls public art initiative.

Today the CJ also gave some love to the InKY folks who are celebrating National Poetry Month with a “Poem in your Pocket” event tonight at 7pm at the Rud. (btw: the “official” Poem in Your Pocket Day is 4/30—I’ll share more on that later).

Happy Friday!!

Uh, Just so you know: We [heart] Matt too

Seems like everyone today has given a wee shout out to Matt Landan, owner and general liontamer of Derby City Espresso, who was the subject of a lovely Courier-Journal profile aujourd'hui. (What's with the random French? Dunno.)

Jake @ Page One
Backseat Sandbar
Evening News Roundup @ Broken Sidewalk
And the article quotes Michelle from Consuming Louisville.

So yeah, just so you know. Mama loves Matt and DCE too.

Not Jenicca's II: New Place to Open in Old Space

According to an article in today's CJ that tries to convince us Loueyvillagers that the restaurant scene ain't as dire as we all know it is, the former home of Jenicca's is about to become the home of a new fine dining restaurant, brought to you by the Wiltshire Pantry catering service folks (who also own the former Jenicca's building). According to the article, owner "Hershberg plans to do the bulk of food preparation at her catering headquarters in the Highlands. 'I'm not even going to need a separate prep staff,' she said. Wiltshire on Market will only be open for dinner on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and Hershberg is embracing the 'small plate' concept.

In the article Tamara Ikenberg cites the losses of Park Place, Brownings, and Primo but fails to mention the loss of Market on Market or Jenicca's or Mellilo's-- not to mention the quasi-closing (Are we dead yet?? It's so hard to tell.) of sometimes food-serving bar/pool hall Ice Breakers. Six (or seven) restaurants within just a few blocks of each other, all very much a part of that East Market corridor we were all so proud of just a year or so ago.

Wiltshire on Market and the upcoming Green Building eatery 732 Social will attempt to plug in some of those holes in the corridor, but let's be realistic, what was once a food destination in the city is no longer. These rapid-fire restaurant deaths make the article's title ('Sky not falling' on dining scene-- a quote from some natty U of L economics prof) ring pretty derned false, if you ask me. Things may be good in the Highlands (or "not as bad as we sometimes think they are"), but in this much-hyped area, just a stone's throw from the future home of our arena, we've got some ghost town shit going down.

(If there is good news to be had in this corridor, FYI, it's in retail not in food... Scout's new home store is beautiful and right next to the brand new flower shop boutique... Red Tree seems to be doing well... Joseph Ley's... always-our-favorite-Design-Star-baddie Tracee Dore's store. No retail stores have closed in the past year or so, to the best of my knowledge.)

I don't know about this (small) influx of more fine dining in that neck of the woods. The only two restaurants open for dinner in the area are Mayan Cafe and Artemesia, both priced out of my budget except for special occasions. Both 732 Social and Wiltshires claim to have embraced the "small plate" trend, a style of dining that strikes me as being very trendy and perhaps short-lived.

We'll see what happens. I wish them luck. And while it's nice to hear good economic news at times, it would be better if that news felt honest.