Slate’s Jack Shafer Discusses Being Laid Off, Future Plans
Last night two big stories broke. One was that Steve Jobs was stepping down as CEO of Apple. The other, and the one much more important to those of us in the media world, was that Jack Shafer was laid off by Slate. It caught everyone by surprise because Shafer and his Press Box column are phenomenal, it seemed crazy that Slate would let someone like him go. But such is the life of journalists.
Because we’re big fans of Shafer, we thought we’d pass along the interview he did with Adweek last night. In true Shafer fashion, he was blunt, sarcastic and enjoyable. Below, a few choice quotes.
On why he was let go:
“I’m not the only one who has been let go by Slate. Slate has expanded ambitiously, and right now it’s responding to the industry-wide recession in a sensible fashion by cutting some costs—and I’m one of those costs.”
On where he’ll write next (he will still contribute to Slate):
“I haven’t phoned-up Rupert Murdoch and asked him if he wants another columnist at the Wall Street Journal.”
On his writing style:
“Let’s start some fights and see who wins.”
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