New editor at Philly Inquirer

The hits just keep on comin'

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/business/15961941.htm

 

i see they left out the fact that marimow has a character in the wire named after him. david simon, the creator of the wire and one of marimow's former underlings at the baltimore sun, named a despised, incompetent cop "marimow." i think he's been called a "human virus" on the show or something like that.

 

This was an interesting line from the story about the new boss:

That material will focus on the Philadelphia area, Marimow added. Although that will still include larger stories, he said, "we will no longer be sending battalions of staffers to cover news like Hurricane Katrina and the war in Baghdad."

A lot of papers have already swallowed the Kool-Aid and turned their focus inward and now it seems the big boys are tagging along. This is bound to have a big effect eventually on the coverage of national sporting events as beancounters figure out that it's better to simply use the wire for the World Series and re-deploy the staff writer at the big prep game that weekend.

 

Excuse me, but didn't wars used to SELL papers? Isn't that why we fought the Spanish-American War in the first place? Some philosophy. We plan to downplay the biggest stories out there.

 

Did this bother anyone else: Marimow said he wrote Tierney a letter last summer after viewing the Philadelphia-centered movie Invincible, and discussions progressed from that first contact.

He was lobbying for a job that was already filled?

 

Well, it doesn't necessarily say he was lobbying for the editor's job.

 

I've wanted to work at the Plain-Dealer ever since seeing The Drew Carey Show.

 

If he had been lobbying for a position under the rank of editor, wouldn't he have applied to Amanda Bennett, the editor?

 

Well, perhaps, you never know, maybe more of a social thing, you know, "I'd love to work for your paper if the opportunity every presents itself." I know, as usual, I'm not being nearly cynical enough.

 

SF isn't saying he was lobbying to be something else, Frank. Marimow worked in Philly for like 20 years. He may have simply sent Tierney a letter asking him what he thought of the movie, Tierney responded, they got to talking, eventually the state of the Inquirer came up, and somewhere down the line, over the course of several conversations, Tierney asked him if he'd want the job.

Last summer, Marimow was still working at NPR, heading up their news division, and he quit in a power struggle and became their ombudsman. I don't think he would have agreed to be the ombudsman, even if only for a few weeks, if he had the Philly job lined up for months and months.

 

I don't know Marimow. Or Bennett. Or Tierney. I have no axe to grind on this. It just looks unseemly, that's all.

 

I say cut out the international coverage all together. Nothing important happening beyond our borders.