Strong words.

That classical music critics are losing their jobs all over the place is a fact, and a seriously lamentable one. But Justin Davidson -- formerly of Newsday, now of New York magazine -- offers some sobering context in an essay, "Whither Withering Criticism?," published today on MusicalAmerica.com:

After I left Newsday, where I worked as a critic from 1996 until I joined the staff of New York magazine last year, the paper virtually ceased coverage of classical music. In the most recent spasm of buyouts, it also sacrificed two movie critics, a visual arts critic, and a TV critic and cut loose the freelancer who wrote about dance. But to put that in context: In the past few years, Newsday also shuttered its foreign bureaus, closed the national desk, halved its Washington staff, pulled out of New York City, whittled down every other department and slashed its total number of pages.

Justin's suggestion as to the eventual fate of classical music journalism and criticism is a notion that's been rattling around my head for several years, and with a sharply increased intensity since Denver and its aftermath.

Comments

[Brian Hinrichs]

Yesterday Timothy Egan wrote a piece in the Times that unfortunately complements Davidson's perfectly. He writes that 1,000 jobs were cut in newspapers across the US last week: http://egan.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/02/save-the-press/

[Jon Abbey]

of course, if you go for an even broader context, it might make you feel a bit better, as what profession is actually safe these days? not too many of them, I don't think.