Comments on: Editor and Publisher closes after 125 years

By: P.S. Mueller

P.S. Mueller — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 18:32:20 +0000

My dad wrote freelance for them in the early 40s. I’ll take issue with Ted in that Greg Mitchell did his level best to subversively insert or point to stories buried or overlooked by the corporate press during the Bush nightmare.

I saw the departure of David Astor was certainly the writing on the wall.

I wish all their staffers the best.

By: Guy Gilchrist

Guy Gilchrist — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 16:02:11 +0000

E and P was getting to be less and less. Dave was such a huge part of it for us.Still..it was the only publication of it’s kind. I’ll miss it. Of course, I miss what the business once was.

By: Ted Dawson

Ted Dawson — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:44:01 +0000

Times are tough for multi-billion-dollar investment corporations.

E&P was ruined once it started being bought and sold this decade. I’d like to see a couple of the E&P guys start their own similar publication. If they don’t, somebody will. Just because a major corporation shuts down one of it’s companies, it doesn’t mean there isn’t a market for it. Their decisions aren’t made based on silly realities like that.

By: Pedro Molina.

Pedro Molina. — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:35:14 +0000

Sad news, I remember I discovered some old issues of E&P in a local library (only God knows how they get there) that was the first time I saw some cartoons of Oliphant, Borgman (when he won the Thomas Nast award) Benson, Greenberg… after that I was always hunting for new issues, of course, the best part was Dave Astor section, I still have some of the interviews and reviews he did in my clips files, thanks Dave.

I’m glad we have TDC, thanks Allan

By: Ted Rall

Ted Rall — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:38:46 +0000

With the exception of Dave Astor’s syndication writing, E&P was always far short of great: it was stodgy, old-fashioned and bland to the extreme.

As bad as it was, though, there doesn’t seem to be anything poised to replace it.

By: Anne Hambrock

Anne Hambrock — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:01:53 +0000

There was a piece on NPR’s “On The Media” the other day that, while not related to E & P specifically, addressed the situation in the overall news media pretty well.

http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2009/12/04/03

By: Mike Peterson

Mike Peterson — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 11:52:10 +0000

My frustration is the E&P (in which I had been both published and quoted) failed to adapt — blogs and web sites like this were also spreading syndie news, Romenesko helped spread newsroom news — they were no longer the only place to get that information, but they clung to some outmoded ways of keeping their franchise. The added value of the print version was minimal, but they failed to make their on-line edition interactive. No way to comment on articles on the main site, no way to contact writers of those articles — guest articles used a newsroom email address. All they offered were endless entreaties to “tweet us” or visit blogs that disappeared like morning frost. It was like they gave it away but discouraged engagement at the same time.

It’s not a sign of the disappearance of newspapers. It’s a sign of how, if you don’t get it right, you don’t get a second chance. In print, offer extras. On line, encourage (meaningful) engagement. It’s not rocket science. It’s more like emergency medicine.

By: BOB QUICK

BOB QUICK — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 02:51:23 +0000

When E&P listed my feature in their Syndicate Directory I took that as a sign that I had finally “arrived”. It will be sorely missed.

By: Chris Eliopoulos

Chris Eliopoulos — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 01:05:25 +0000

Wow. If this isn’t a sign.

My mother used to work for a company that dealt with newspaper advertising and every year E&P came out with a guide to all syndicated material–comics, columns and editorial cartoons–and she would bring a copy home for me. I still have them in my studio. I used to pour through them to see the new strips and dream.

Sadly, as evidenced, the dream of newspaper syndication is almost dead.

By: Paul Fell

Paul Fell — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:42:29 +0000

I just deleted their url from my bookmarks list.

What a lovely Christmas present for the folks who have worked so long and hard to make E&P the voice of the newspaper industry for so many years. Hope the owners of Neilsen sleep well over the holidays.