Wow. I guess we are moving more and more into that clicky online world and flashy TV specials.

Ouch.

This was going on when I was writing for them ten years ago. My wonderful editor, Ollie Payne, who had been assigning important, in-depth features for the print magazine for decades, was demoted to handling short website pieces. A new editor-in-chief was installed who totally changed the focus of the magazine away from photography and science more to consumer interests like health.

This is what happens when you have publicly traded corporations take over magazines and newspapers. They gut and pillage the publications, with no sense of their meaning and purpose. It's like strip mining except without the remediation.

It's happened to many fine publications. The only ones that seem to escape do so by becoming independent non-profits. The Atlantic is an example, as is Harper's. The stress on the staffs when these magazines are taken over by corporate entities is hell on them. I don't know how they endure it. It's the destruction of a major institution they have devoted their lives to.

And the freelancers (moi) suffer also. What had been a viable livelihood when they paid $5/word is no longer. Not to mention the loss of the vision for the publication that animated all the work that appeared in it, and inspired everyone who worked on it.

Really a travesty. And disgusting.

As an old friend, an old-time newsman who owned the Denver Post before passing at age 99, once said to me: "they are eating their young."

Thank you.
Cancelled. Had quit reading it.