What’s a Column Worth?
One of the big stories in the ongoing downsizing of the Philadelphia Inquirer is the reassignment of columnist Gail Shister, who carved out a beat focusing heavily on local broadcast, network and cable news operations. The leaner, meaner Inquirer apparently felt that this was not something they could spare a writer to do, so they reassigned Shister as a general features reporter whose pieces would appear as needed throughout the paper. This move has generally been panned as a sign of poor decision-making on the Inquirer’s part and something of a mark of disrespect to Shister. On the other hand, on Sunday she had a story on Katie Couric and CBS on the front page of the A&E section that was rather in-depth (a little shorter on specifics than I might have liked) and longer than anything that would have appeared in her column space. If that kind of reporting actually became a hallmark of the Inquirer and Shister’s news assignment, I might consider it a step up.
About Dave Thomer
Born and raised in Philadelphia. Studied philosophy at Fordham University in the Bronx, where I made many great friends and met my wonderful wife. We moved back to Philadelphia, where I studied philosophy some more and became a teacher. Online and off, I'm looking for ways that we can be better citizens and build stronger communities.