Fritschner leaving CJ Food Editor's post?

[Robin Garr]

Or so the rumor mill at Sixth and Broadway has it ... Food Editor Sarah Fritschner will be the next victim of Gannett's ongoing budget trimming; she'll reportedly leave around Labor Day to take on a career working with local farm and sustainable-agriculture issues.

Not confirmed, and I've heard no word on a successor, if any.

It's interesting, though, to see the small cluster of old-line Bingham employees who held their noses and stayed after Gannett gradually thinning over the years as budget trimming and retirement and other opportunities take their toll.

I hope it's not true, although I certainly won't be suprised. Sarah has done so much to broaden Louisville's food knowledge and appreciation. Her passion combined with the depth and breadth of her knowledge had been one of the few bright spots at the C-J. This would be a tragedy in my opinion! Perhaps losing the corporate shackles will open up many new opportunities of which she is do deserving.

I am very sad to hear that. Sarah has made a great contribution to the CJ's food coverage.

I've only been in Louisville for a few years, so I don't know what things were like before the Gannett takeover. Still, even post-Gannett, C-J food coverage is better than that of the average mid-size city. At least that's been my experience based on other places I've lived and visited; I always dive toward the food section in local papers.

Most often it seems that food writing is assigned as a secondary beat to a reporter who specializes in another area. And the Wednesday recipes are dominated by quick-and-easy combinations of convenience foods. It seems that many papers go overboard trying not to seem "elitist" by dumbing down food coverage, in contrast to the comparable professionalism of, say, their sports stories. I can't imagine an arts reporter so casually being assigned to cover local college basketball.

It's ironic that, as overall restaurant fare and ingredient quality/availability has risen, providing more to write about, newspapers are cutting back on their coverage.

I'm overgeneralizing for the sake of brevity, but this has been my impression. Any thoughts?

Oh I have an inside track on the CJ. That is a ship sinking, and sinking fast. The management at that place is about the worst I have ever heard of. The last big layoffs in the ad department aka the story in the LEO, were awful. The fed the employees more bull than Mcdonalds. It really was a travesty.

Oh I have an inside track on the CJ. That is a ship sinking, and sinking fast.

I'm not sure what that means. The C-J, like nearly all medium and large market news organizations owned by multi-outlet owners, has been in a downsizing position for some years. It's been death by a thousand cuts for some time, and it seems to continue. Witness the latest "consolidation" of many sections into truncated combined sections, such as "arts and travel," recently totaling only about eight pages for both combined.

Oh I have an inside track on the CJ. That is a ship sinking, and sinking fast.

I'm not sure what that means. The C-J, like nearly all medium and large market news organizations owned by multi-outlet owners, has been in a downsizing position for some years. It's been death by a thousand cuts for some time, and it seems to continue. Witness the latest "consolidation" of many sections into truncated combined sections, such as "arts and travel," recently totaling only about eight pages for both combined.

It means that I know beyond what you just wrote. That's the obvious stuff. I mean the inner workings of the place. The good stuff on the inside is what I mean. The stuff that really makes you shake your head. Not meaning any pretense though. I am sure Robin has a good idea of the inside as well.

John R wrote "It means that I know beyond what you just wrote. That's the obvious stuff. I mean the inner workings of the place. The good stuff on the inside is what I mean. The stuff that really makes you shake your head. Not meaning any pretense though. I am sure Robin has a good idea of the inside as well."

Well, since you know so much, why don't you share.

That's sad. I really enjoy her articles and look forward to them every week.

[Robin Garr]

Or so the rumor mill at Sixth and Broadway has it ... Food Editor Sarah Fritschner will be the next victim of Gannett's ongoing budget trimming; she'll reportedly leave around Labor Day to take on a career working with local farm and sustainable-agriculture issues.

Not confirmed, and I've heard no word on a successor, if any.

It's interesting, though, to see the small cluster of old-line Bingham employees who held their noses and stayed after Gannett gradually thinning over the years as budget trimming and retirement and other opportunities take their toll.

The other shoe drops, as Sarah - whose last day was actually Friday - pens a brief and noncommittal farewell in today's CJ.

Soon, Gannett will just be a national publication with a skeleton crew in each city to provide some token coverage of local stories. It's ironic that as newspapers merged and became larger national operations they became less relevant and actually led to the re-emergence and relevance of independent papers like the LEO.

I've always felt like Sarah's presence in the paper was a wonderful addition--having someone from Louisville doing food features regularly was a gift. I also thought that when she took over the bigger food operation, hired Marty, etc., that kicked things up a notch as well. This was the rare situation of the chain newspaper covering a subject better than they had (at least in recent times).

I am sorry to see her go. I thought it was an interesting sign-off, but very oblique.

Soon, Gannett will just be a national publication with a skeleton crew in each city to provide some token coverage of local stories. It's ironic that as newspapers merged and became larger national operations they became less relevant and actually led to the re-emergence and relevance of independent papers like the LEO.

The LEO is not an independent paper anymore and is not nearly as good as it was when it was Yarmuth's.

Soon, Gannett will just be a national publication with a skeleton crew in each city to provide some token coverage of local stories. It's ironic that as newspapers merged and became larger national operations they became less relevant and actually led to the re-emergence and relevance of independent papers like the LEO.

The LEO is not an independent paper anymore and is not nearly as good as it was when it was Yarmuth's.

Those are both corrects facts, and yet they do nothing to alter my statement. At the time when LEO emerged and gained popularity due to the declining relevance of CJ, it was in fact an independent paper. Anyway, I was speaking of the overall pattern of behavior seen in most ciites since the corporatization of local print media.

Soon, Gannett will just be a national publication with a skeleton crew in each city to provide some token coverage of local stories. It's ironic that as newspapers merged and became larger national operations they became less relevant and actually led to the re-emergence and relevance of independent papers like the LEO.

The LEO is not an independent paper anymore and is not nearly as good as it was when it was Yarmuth's.

Those are both corrects facts, and yet they do nothing to alter my statement. At the time when LEO emerged and gained popularity due to the declining relevance of CJ, it was in fact an independent paper. Anyway, I was speaking of the overall pattern of behavior seen in most ciites since the corporatization of local print media.

Are you trying to say that I am splitting hairs? I was helping your point saying that indi's are much better.

[Robin Garr]

The LEO is not an independent paper anymore and is not nearly as good as it was when it was Yarmuth's.

Let me speak to that briefly, being in a pretty good position to do so since I worked at The Louisville Times and CJ right through the newspaper merger and sale to Gannett and also work as a content provider to LEO now.

It's true that LEO is no longer independently owned. In contrast to the pure hell that was the CJ under Gannett, though, LEO's Erie-based owners - a small chain of alternative weeklys - don't seem to make any effort to exert editorial control at all. I won't say there aren't budget issues - that's endemic in print media, I'm afraid. But LEO is just as free to be "eccentric" - and aggressively local - as it ever was, and I'd argue that the content is consistently more interesting, and its willingness to take on serious local issues more admirable, than the husk of the once great old CJ on Gannett's watch.