Editor’s Note
That sketch of me to the right and down the page a bit is pretty unflattering. Unfortunately, it looks just like me. Still, the problem has to be solved one way or another, and while this may seem drastic, here’s the fix: I’m retiring from the Scene.
I may be a lame duck (though not actually because of the caricature), but I’m leaving to try something completely new, to take an endlessly exciting, and unexpected, opportunity. In short, I’m attempting something pretty rare in journalism these days: a chance to make an exit while I’m still having an enormous amount of fun. I’m proud of the staff I work with—the most talented in the city—and the newspaper we produce every week. It might be a bit anticlimactic, but this is not a protest resignation, a corporate cost-cutting measure or a veiled firing.
My next gig is as editorial director of Magellan Media, an umbrella company of book imprints and (non-newspaper) publishing enterprises headed by Nashville businessman Bill King, someone I respect a great deal. I’ll be working on new projects, developing business, assessing ideas and other slightly vague and terrifying pursuits that will probably tempt me (let’s hope unfuckingsuccessfully) to use the word “synergy” and will doubtless cause me to awaken at 3 a.m. in a cold sweat. But that’s just it: My best work comes in the face of blind terror. Plus, after 12 years at one place—as political writer, news editor, associate editor, then editor—it’s time for this root-bound journalist to repot herself.
When I became editor in 2004, I informally imposed a five-year expiration date on the job, figuring that’s how long it would take to do the things I wanted to accomplish and still do them tirelessly, without becoming complacent. I’m crossing the finish line a year and change early. (And a good thing, too, or there might be even more metaphors in this column.)
I can’t offer much at this point about our succession plan here at the Scene, except to say that I’m leaving the thrift store couch I bought for $60 circa 2000. The stories it could tell were it not an inanimate object….
Assuming the editorial power structure here wants my copy, I will continue to contribute to the Scene from time to time. And because I’ll be sticking around until the end of June, my staff will have to suffer seven more weeks of unsolicited grammar lectures, Luther Vandross iTunes and really dated pop culture references. Na, na, na, na…na, na, na, na…hey hey hey…goodbye.
Oh, and I'll probably post a nostalgic note here on June 30, if for no other reason than we'll need content to feed the beast.
Comments
Hmmm...a close contest for Pith post of the day between this and the one about the school board candidate email. Looking forward to the June 29 blowout farewell party where a tearful Liz announces she's not leaving after all. Say it ain't so. This town won't be the same.
Posted 05/06/2008 at 04:56:27 PMWow.
You've built quite an impressive newspaper; the city owes you a great deal.
Posted 05/06/2008 at 05:18:04 PMWell, now you know why I thought you were so pasty white ;) I've really enjoyed watching the Scene grow over the years. I look forward to watching you grow in your new pot. Congrats, Liz!
Posted 05/06/2008 at 05:43:29 PMGodspeed, Liz. Bill King does more good things with less fanfare than anyone else in this town. Anywhere in his constellation of companies is a very good place to be. I'll be very interested to see what you and he make of Magellan now.
Posted 05/06/2008 at 07:28:39 PMI was in your office TODAY. Standing.... in... your... office ... TODAY. Not a goddamn word? Not a heads-up? Not a good-natured noogie on my head and pat on the back?
If I hadn't been already drinking when I heard the news, I would have started drinking.
Posted 05/06/2008 at 09:20:16 PMAll the best, Liz. It was great working with you.
Posted 05/07/2008 at 08:57:53 AMWho will keep us posted on all the media gossip? This is bad. Very bad.
Posted 05/07/2008 at 09:09:12 AMBut good luck just the same!
Please take me with you, Liz!
Posted 05/07/2008 at 10:06:18 AMThanks, gentlemen all. Trent, talking about Andrea Conte was much more interesting. The real question is, are you still drinking?
Posted 05/07/2008 at 10:44:15 AMWell, Liz, it's a quarter after eleven-or-so, so I've just gotten up so I'm not still drinking.
Come to think of it, though, it is about time for an eye-opener. Perhaps a Bloody Mary... or maybe that half-finished nightcap mocking me from the coffee table.
Now that you're leaving, booze will have to serve as my co-pilot.
Posted 05/07/2008 at 11:22:02 AMLiz:
You can't leave us !!!
Seriously, good luck with the new opportunity. You're a brave woman.
With NewsChannel 5 for sale, who knows, I might be exploring new opportunities, too.
Hey, I clicked on "WKRN News Extra" from your Tennessee blog list and discovered they've not posted anything since February !
Is their blog deceased? Should it be on the Scene's list, if it isn't maintained?
Just questions from a competitor !!
MikeC
Posted 05/07/2008 at 11:43:34 AMSo you think your couch could tell some stories, eh?
Posted 05/07/2008 at 12:01:59 PMAw hell, Liz...
Posted 05/07/2008 at 12:43:10 PMCrap.
Posted 05/07/2008 at 02:50:18 PMYou using that couch?
Posted 05/08/2008 at 09:25:48 AMCould the next editor please be more of a hard-news kind of guy (or gal)? 'Cause when I read alt-weeklies from other places that are exposing corrupt politicians and crooked cops, the Scene suffers from comparison. I mean, honestly -- best burger joint in town? spring fashion issue? the lust list? Under the current editorship, there are only one or two issues a month that are even worth picking up.
Posted 05/08/2008 at 12:41:20 PMLiz!
I am very lucky to have met you and been able to work with you a little bit!
The night of wine and a burning squirrel will live with me all of my days.
Thank you!
Posted 05/08/2008 at 02:26:32 PMCongrats on your new adventure!
Liz should have been canned years ago for giving someone like me me a page a week in the Scene to write about politics. Really, what was she thinking?
But seriously, wherever Liz goes, she's gonna succeed. Good luck, Liz.
Posted 05/08/2008 at 04:00:40 PMTom, I think you're confusing us with the City Paper. We don't go a single issue without several hard-hitting news and feature stories. In just the last few weeks, we've had smart and well-written investigative piece on the Tabitha case and another one on influential con-man who is falsely passing himself off as an Hispanic leader. We had a great column from Jeff Woods on the mining company that wants to rape our natural resources and the lawmakers who are allowing it to happen and another important news story on a new law that will restrict public schools from throwing autistic kids in closets--that law, by the way, was an outgrowth of a year or so of reporting on the issue from Elizabeth Ulrich. Not bad for a paper that only puts burgers on the cover, right?
Posted 05/08/2008 at 08:57:20 PMCould the next editor please be more of a hard-news kind of guy (or gal)?
(spit-take) More hard news than Liz? Maybe if we exhume Edward R. Murrow. Liz hired five hard-news reporters and editors, twice as many as the Scene has ever had on staff before.
'Cause when I read alt-weeklies from other places that are exposing corrupt politicians and crooked cops, the Scene suffers from comparison. I mean, honestly -- best burger joint in town? spring fashion issue? the lust list?
Did you not read any further than the covers of those? The whole reason we make those the covers (in theory) is that people will actually pick them up and read them--and perhaps they'll stumble across the exposes in the front of the book on their way to the middle. Also, if it's corrupt politics you enjoy, there's a guy who writes in every Scene issue whose acquaintance you should make. His name is Jeff Woods.
Under the current editorship, there are only one or two issues a month that are even worth picking up.
Sorry, Voldemort. But trust me, you'll love this week's. And I wish I could see your face when you see next week's. Yours and everyone else's.
Posted 05/08/2008 at 08:58:52 PMMattP: I'll freely admit that the Scene often has "hard-hitting news and feature stories," but it's always about the little guys, the hustlers and grifters - the Hispanic con man, for example. Is anybody over there at the Scene examining why the Deans & Bredesens & Corkers of this world are willing to spend millions of their own money to buy political offices? At some point, I'd think you'd get tired of fishing for minnows when there's a river just teeming with king salmon.
I still feel that the Scene has too much fluff and not enough hard news, so we'll just have to agree to disagree on that.
Posted 05/09/2008 at 01:13:07 PMMr. Pink: I know I said the Scene often isn't worth picking up, but fear not, I always pick it up anyway, regardless of the cover. Problem is, issues like "Best Burger in Town" and "The Lust List" are a twenty-minute read at best. The kind of Scene I like is the one I spend an hour with.
I have read Mr. Woods frequently, and I don't share your enthusiasm. He can't distinguish between reporting and editorializing (his reporting on the last mayoral race was especially tainted with editorials disguised as straight reporting).
Looking forward to the next issue.
-Voldemort
Posted 05/09/2008 at 01:40:06 PMI know that couch all too well. It was my refuge when I needed Lizzie's sympathetic ear at least once a day when I toiled away in that 8th Ave basement.
Liz, thanks for all the laughs, making work as fun as possible, and making the Scene worth picking up every week. Well, you AND Mr. Pink:)
I'm expecting an invitation to bask in the Tuscan sun with you and yours.
Arrivederci, Lizzie.
DP
Posted 05/12/2008 at 09:05:12 AMC-ya!
Don't let the door hit you in your Anti-American ass on the way out.
Posted 05/14/2008 at 08:56:11 PM