New York Times loses its culture editor

New York Times loses its culture editor

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norman lebrecht

September 12, 2017

Danielle Mattoon, appointed to the senior position with great fanfare in March 2013, left the newspaper very quietly two weeks ago.

Ask not the reasons why. The Times is notoriously non-transparent when it comes to its internal affairs.

Under Mattoon, the Arts and Leisure sector grew buzzier, less PR-driven, less old boys club.

Nine months ago, she introduced a long overdue redesign.

We’ll update when we hear more.

UPDATE: Here’s why she left.

Comments

  • Bruce says:

    Not a fan of the redesign. “Buzzier,” yes — meaning shallower and actually more PR-driven. Barely any concert reviews or classical artist profiles any more, or if they’re still there, they are harder to find. The pop culture stuff is increasingly about TV shows, celebrity feuds, stuff that doesn’t really belong in the arts section any more than a movie star’s beauty secrets belong in the “cinema” section. I guess by whatever terms they measure success, it’s a success, though, so… great.

    • laurie says:

      Too true. Redesign is dreadfully superficial. IAnd so much is ignored especially small museum shows. Galleries have glitz so that stuff is covered. I suspect ithat arts coverage will only get worse…..

  • Steve P says:

    NYT. Who cares about that birdcage liner?

    • norman lebrecht says:

      The birds.

      • Herr Doktor says:

        Has anyone else noticed on here that certain respondents on this site can be utterly relied upon for ideological responses, no matter the topic?

        • Steve P says:

          Supposing you are referring to me, what ideological comment offended you this time, dear dr?
          And NL, your response was excellent. If that I owned a bird….

          • jaypee2 says:

            You’re not offending anyone, Steve Pee. You’re just pathetic. And predictable. That’s all.
            Basically, you’re the deplorables’ Bortslap…

          • Steve P says:

            Well, at least give me some credit for being consistent. Utterly!

      • MWnyc says:

        Mind, if it were really only the birds who cared about the NY Times Culture section, people wouldn’t be posting or commenting on blogs about it.

        Doesn’t mean those people like the NY Times, of course, and obviously there’s no reason they have to. But it’s no good pretending that nobody cares when we’re here talking about it.

  • Saul Davis Zlatkovski says:

    When I lived in New York, people lived and died by the New York Times. The readers were like sheep led by the nose by its writers and critics. And boy, were they critical. They did so much damage to music, I think it has never recovered.

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