Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Sources are telling me that the Asheville Citizen-Times will kill its Living section starting in early January, when the newspaper closes its Sardis Road printing plant and moves printing to Greenville, S.C. I still don’t have this news confirmed. And I’m very concerned about the fate of former colleagues who work each day to put that section together. What’s going to happen to them?
But I’ll also miss the Living section. At every newspaper I’ve ever worked, the Living section has always been an estrogen pen that gave me (male) that extra perspective I’ve needed. After all, these feature sections grew up out of starting as “women’s news” or “society news.” These sections gave a lot of great women an entry into the news business. These pages taught us our manners and reminded us of the importance of polite society.
Consider Nancy Marlowe. Nancy was editor of the Living section at the Citizen-Times when I joined the newspaper in 1992. She came to Asheville in 1971 after working as “society editor” for a newspaper in Lakeland, Fla.
She was the reigning queen of the newsroom in Asheville, and I mean that in a good way. She was incredibly well-loved in the community, and around Asheville, she was connected and knew everybody. If Nancy wrote about you, you were special. She earned respect, then commanded it. Those were the days.
But I digress.
How hard is to cook a Thanksgiving turkey? Well, the recipes in the Living section told me.
How many calories do I add to my hips when I drink that extra beer? The Living section told me. How do I get rid of that holiday hangover, or beat the sunless blues, or deal with the bad break-up or that tense office relationship? When should I plant my bulbs?
I always found the answers in the Living section.
But somewhere along the way, the section lost much of its relevance to people’s daily lives. Now, it appears that Gannett and the Citizen-Times see the section and its information as expendable. That’s too bad, because there’s more to life than the latest scandal, police bust or sports score.
The death of the Living section is way overdue. Polly McDaniel working in online is so hilarious! I needed a good laugh this morning. Polly is so old school!
What are she and husband, Rick (McDaniel) to do? No more restaurant reviews bought and paid for by the CTimes. Am I the only person to think that Polly’s husband being a freelance reporter for the Ctimes was a conflict of interest? Many years ago, her idea of content for a Back to School section was a listing of the school bus routes. There’s something that’s interesting to the masses. Good people get laid off and she slides into another "cush job". I bet she has never had an idea of her own. Hammer protects those that protect him.
If Polly McDaniel is being moved to the online stuff, wow…the end of the paper is really near. No offense, but she simply does not have the background or tech savvy for that role, and that’s a sign things are really consolidating fast.
if you had to kill a section of the newspaper, what would it be?
My wife said sports…but then she laughed! Hope she was kidding???
NewspaperJunkie, I’m hearing that Brue Steele’s new responsibilities will be to oversee the community pages and whatever’s left of the features department, and Polly McDaniel will move into working with online operations in some capacity. I don’t have details yet.
If the Living section as we know it will be killed, what will replace it? What will Bruce Steele’s new responsibilities be?
Pixie, if it’s the most relevant section — and I think a lot of people would agree with you –then why are they cutting it?
if you had to kill a section of the newspaper, what would it be?
but back to the topic at hand: the living section is totally relevant, and it is the only section I read. If I actually paid for the paper, I would totally cancel my subscription.
theodore:
You are so cranky all the time. Is there anything we can do to help you deal with this issue?
theodore, the Ciizen-Times did not have the AB-Tech story up "first thing in the morning."
the C-T posted three paragraphs at 12:15 p.m. I posted the Mountain Xpress story, probably a 15-column-inch story with context and background with a link to the pdf of the president’s full memo, at roughly 12:40.
and btw, i link to news channels in Tenn. and all over the state of NC, including WLOS.
Ughhhh. A second post about the same thing.
I like your bias on the AB-Tech info. The ACT website had it up there first thing in the morning, but I know you don’t want to link to that until MtnX has it or some news channel in TN.