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There’s a sketch of me on our blog that’s pretty unflattering, though unfortunately it’s a dead-on likeness. 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.
The Best $60 Liz Ever Spent The thrift-store couch
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 unsuccessfully) 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.
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