Which is appropriate, since Detroit is the largest city in the country without residents, functioning government, or even any real sign of civilization. I suspect Detroit is some kind of prank being perpetrated by those Damned Canadians over in Windsor. How else to explain Kwame Kilpatrick. He can't be real.

I hope this to be constructive crit but it probably won't be taken that way: This really has a whole lot more to do with the financial state of print media today and just about nothing to do with anything that once passed as a topic of interest on this blog - especially because Gannett can run reviews from the bajillions of other newspapers it owns (like maybe USA Today). But that's the new Defamer for you.

It would be much more constructive if you didn't rehash a point that was made in the post ("The Freep's move clearly signals that there's a changing tide in the amount of importance [and budget dollars] local newspapers allocate to coverage of the movie business"). Of course Gannett can run reviews from other papers it owns, but they are actually choosing to run wire reviews from a paper they DON'T own (The Orlando Sentinel is owned by the Trib). And one last thing -- why do you think that it isn't Defamer's territory to cover stories that have ramifications on the way that consumers interact with the movie business?

newspapers currently don't have the budget for news, let alone local features, and certainly not easily-pooled film reviews. seems like a smart place to cut, IMHO. i hope A.O. Scott is a little more scared today.

This strikes me as shortsighted, unless newspapers have truly given up. Reviews - interesting ones - are one of the only reasons to turn to the movie section, where readers will see the ads papers work so hard to sell. What's left, the movie clock?

Somewhat OT, but it's the same thing with coverage of cars and even real estate. The editorial supports the advertising because it's distinct way to get eyeballs on the ads. Even the NYT gets this, having paid some good auto hacks to write for a paper whose core demo doesn't even drive.

@Seanibus: Did you see this today?

Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's new chief of staff earned high praise from City Council members for his work today, but he has struggled financially and is working out a plan to pay thousands of dollars in back taxes still owed to Wayne County.

Kandia Milton, a longtime friend who Kilpatrick appointed today to replace Christine Beatty, emerged from Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection for his debts last fall, lost two Detroit properties at sheriff's sales in April and May 2006, and as of today still owes $9,250 in city property taxes, according to various public records.

(Shakes head.) Classic.

It could just be a sign that movies are becoming less interesting. I honestly can't think of the last movie that I really liked. Do we really need 1000 critics to tell us that "I Know Who Killed Me" was a horrible movie?

So much for constructive criticism. It was a well-written post, just seemed more like Gawker's territory.

How about next time finding a link between the diminishing quality and quantity of theatrical releases and how it might have adversely affected that guy's job? Two or three crappy new releases a week is hardly enough to keep a person employed full-time reviewing them. That's really where I thought you were going with this, but it never went there.

Ciao.

@BoHan: Actually, re-reading it, you kind've went there. My apologies.

I'm in daily newspapers -- scared witless right now -- but I gotta say that cutting the movie critic is a financially appropriate move in Detroit. Most full-time critics are older, while the audiences are young. There are gobs of young reporters who could easily take on the reviewing tasks as their side beat.

Makes sense. Detroit doesn't have movie theaters.

@thenoodieblues: If you have create an ad for "I Know Who Killed Me" or work up the dvd box, the more critics the better. I imagine you'd have to wade through 1000 reviews to find the one that says "It's like Memento meets Herbie Fully Loaded" and wouldn't that seem more credible coming from Rex Reed than BobaFett69 at Rotten Tomatoes?

Okay, maybe not Rex Reed, but how about Tex Creed at the Ft. Worth Daily Tribune?

The movie industry needs lots of critics from sources that appear credible at a glance, otherwise they'll just have to go invent those people and their quotes like they use to.

Pretty soon, the only fulltime newspaper critics in the country will be in LA and New York. Atlanta gave theirs up, didn't they? Lots of others already gone. Too bad. No more surprises, no more variety, no more cheerleaders for the overlooked and underhyped. Weird that should be happening when the amount of personal indie films is getting so big and so few end up with major distributors to sell them.

Ft. Lauderdale's Sun-Sentinel dumped their film critc, Phoebe Flowers, last year. Been running reviews from their Orlando sister since then, along with assorted wires.

@Gorilla: I don't think that the dvd box for 'I Know Who Killed Me' really needs or would benefit from critic's blurbs, real or imaginary, because the audience for that movie would already think it fully adiquate for a Friday night in...

Plus, the odds are close to perfect that the renter would be functionally illiterate.

Mark Graham said, "Of course Gannett can run reviews from other papers it owns, but they are actually choosing to run wire reviews from a paper they DON'T own (The Orlando Sentinel is owned by the Trib)."

So, I asked Roger Moore to shed a light.

[blogs.orlandosentinel.com]

Yep - another nail in the coffin of professional journalism.

I bet there are Bloggers out there just frothing at the gash that their comments on what they downloaded from BitTorrent may become 'reported' in print.

What strikes me as odd is that so many in "the fly-over states" resent having their movie tastes dictated by critics/guilds in L.A. and New York (exemplified again by this year's Oscar noms). If this critic-yanking trend continues, from where else will these critiques come?

Aren't these papers only further deteriorating the relationship with their subscribers, who buy a community paper specifically because it's not just another NYT/CNN/Yahoo News/AP rehash?

-Tom

Responding to Mark Graham and T. Holly...no idea why Ganett would pull my Tribune reviews for use in Detroit over their own chain's scribes, except to say that haven't Jack Garner and others taken buyouts from them as well? They're pretty critic-lean these days. As are we all.
RM