How long will The O’s Lawrence Toppman keep his job?
There’s an interesting article in American Journalism Review about the future of the local newspaper film critic. In a word, that future is limited. As can be expected, as newspapers cut back staff, they’re cutting back in areas where they can get the same coverage elsewhere and for cheaper. An obvious target: the movie review. After all, why pay a Lawrence Toppman (The Charlotte Observer’s venerable film critic and also perhaps the nicest person working in local journalism) to write movie reviews when you can just buy Roger Ebert’s reviews off syndication?
One could argue (and the AJR article does, after a fashion) that Toppman is a franchise player for The Observer. People know him by sight; he appears on TV and the radio. But the guess here (and this is pure speculation) is that still might not be enough to keep him around for the long term, at least in his current job. Thus far, The Observer has avoided making wholesale job cuts (the AJR article cites Denver’s Rocky Mountain News as having offered buyouts to 17 newsroom employees and the Tampa Tribune buying out eight). But McClatchy’s stock has been pummeled since buying the Knight Ridder papers, and Observer staffers seem more worried than ever that layoffs or buyouts could be headed their way. Toppman has been there a while, and veteran newsroomers are the ones who get the buyout offers. Still, my guess is that if The O decides to buy syndicated movie reviews, it will keep Toppman on and assign him to the film beat (the local movie-making industry, film festivals, etc.) as well as some other arts/pop culture beat. I hope so, because he’s talented and smart and knows the area and, like I wrote earlier, really nice. He’s also a good film critic. —R.T.
P.S. The AJR article also spends some time on newspapers’ online arts coverage. It’s kinda long, but an interesting read.
There’s an interesting article in American Journalism Review about the future of the local newspaper film critic. In a word, that future is limited. As can be expected, as newspapers cut back staff, they’re cutting back in areas where they can get the same coverage elsewhere and for cheaper. An obvious target: the movie review. After all, why pay a Lawrence Toppman (The Charlotte Observer’s venerable film critic and also perhaps the nicest person working in local journalism) to write movie reviews when you can just buy Roger Ebert’s reviews off syndication?
One could argue (and the AJR article does, after a fashion) that Toppman is a franchise player for The Observer. People know him by sight; he appears on TV and the radio. But the guess here (and this is pure speculation) is that still might not be enough to keep him around for the long term, at least in his current job. Thus far, The Observer has avoided making wholesale job cuts (the AJR article cites Denver’s Rocky Mountain News as having offered buyouts to 17 newsroom employees and the Tampa Tribune buying out eight). But McClatchy’s stock has been pummeled since buying the Knight Ridder papers, and Observer staffers seem more worried than ever that layoffs or buyouts could be headed their way. Toppman has been there a while, and veteran newsroomers are the ones who get the buyout offers. Still, my guess is that if The O decides to buy syndicated movie reviews, it will keep Toppman on and assign him to the film beat (the local movie-making industry, film festivals, etc.) as well as some other arts/pop culture beat. I hope so, because he’s talented and smart and knows the area and, like I wrote earlier, really nice. He’s also a good film critic. —R.T.
P.S. The AJR article also spends some time on newspapers’ online arts coverage. It’s kinda long, but an interesting read.
