Waiting On Philadelphia And The Fate Of Signe Wilkinson

I thought this article provided some clarity to a situation that was hinted at in others: that even with Tony Auth departing the Philadelphia newspaper scene, cartoonist Signe Wilkinson was advised to do so as well. She's so far declined, but that doesn't mean a decision won't be made on her behalf as apparently necessary staff cuts move forward. She does have support in that community, and is believed to have specific value to the journalistic mission in which she takes part. I think this is an obvious "showdown" situation, where while it may be a bit silly to play it up in that terms there is a definite clash of perceived best outcomes going head to head. Wilkinson's status as an extremely high profile female cartoonist plays into this as well.

One of the things that's frustrating about the Philadelphia cutbacks story is that for the most part newspapers are perceived to have moved past the worst elements of three or four years ago when things seemed to be in free fall. Again, that's too easy: there have been plenty of cutbacks and plenty of staffed newspaper editorial cartoonist position cut since the darkest days, but this kind of thing still seems slightly out of joint with the overall mood. It's also a deeply uncomfortable sign in that arguably, part of what got newspapers into this mess in the first place comes down to the idea that the industry was poorly prepared for any kind of systemic blow after years of dependable profit margins for many of their companies. This was a source of self-laceration (as in "we did not do what we could to increase efficiency to keep pace with changes in technology") but also provided a small measure of comfort (as in "these cuts are horrible but maybe, despite our every impulse that these our factors beyond our control, we were due some of these changes") in dark times. That further, still-drastic, and perhaps even basic coverage-altering cuts might be necessary in a major market calls into question the manner in which the initial rounds of cutbacks were performed as well as the long-term effectiveness of such solutions. Unsettling times.
 
posted 6:00 am PST | Permalink
 

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