More bad news from the Times: Sources tell Daily Intel that as part of their big-time budget cuts, the paper will be closing the weekly “City” supplement in the next few weeks. This is sad. We always liked the way that section took quirky stories about Hannah Upp and the travails of young rappers from Hollis and put them together in the same house, like Edna Garrett took in random girls on The Facts of Life. As we understand it, some of the editors on staff will be reassigned (mostly to the “Metro” and regional sections), but the section is pretty much entirely freelance-written, and it’s unclear what will happen to the regular “permalancers” who contributed stories and columns. Editors at the section referred us to a Times spokeswoman, who has yet to respond to our request for comment.
UPDATE: Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis responded to our query with neither a yea or nay: “Last week, Bill Keller, our executive editor said in a meeting with the newsroom, “We are looking at ways to re-imagine our Sunday coverage of the region — which is now spread out among New York news pages, the City weekly and the Regionals,” she said in an email. When we asked what that meant, exactly, she said “had nothing to add.” Right, ok. Regardless of what’s happening in anyone’s imagination, we’ve now heard from several people involved that the section is closing.
