@BlogKCThe downturn in the advertising and newspaper business seems to have hit the Pitch just in time for the new year. In addition to the regular Happy New Year tweets floating around the KC Twitterverse were several “OMG the Pitch is laying people” off tweets. Neither the Pitch itself or an other traditional media have said anything, but here is the list we can deduce from Twitter…
Charles Feruzza, Food Critic
Jen Chen, Nightlife columnist and Staff Writer
Chris Packham (a.k.a. Farmer Bob), Asst. Calendar Editor, Daily Briefs.
Lorna Perry, Editorial Assistant
While I’ve been pretty ambivalent towards the direction the Pitch has taken recently (maybe I’m just getting old), I hate to see Charles Feruzza go. His column was my main reason for picking up the paper each week.
That’s an unfortunate development. Personally, I think that Charles Feruzza should have been the one to lay off the Pitch. Without the extra baggage of all of the other Pitch distractions, the Charles Feruzza magazine would be a lot more interesting.
Good luck in your next project, Mr. Feruzza!
Having shared a cubicle with Charles Ferruzza for two years, I would also be interested in subscribing to Ferruzza Fancy magazine.
Charles Feruzza is the only reason to read the pitch. I wonder how popular Jen Chen will be now that she has no say (never really did) in the nitelife!? I mean she is so cool…
The Pitch is a hack paper anyway, I mean, I have never read an article in it that was researched properly or didn’t cater to the bottom of the barrel… McPitch!
I totally agree – Charles Feruzza’s column was the only reason I picked up the Pitch for the last few years. Why in the world would the Pitch fire him??? I have always thought he should start his own online restaurant review blog – now’s the time Charles!
Feruzza was one of the best parts of The Pitch as well as the calender although, the calender always had errors in it.
After The Pitch sold to the national conglomerate, the tone quickly became snarky, angry and bitter with most of the feature stories being hit pieces filled with serious factual errors.
There are other local free news outlets which do a much better job with local news and local issues. It wouldn’t be a bad thing if The Pitch sold to a local company who would return it to a good factually based local news outlet again.
Charles Ferruzza was the only column I read regularly…I probably won’t bother picking up The Pitch now.
Layoffs suck. All these people are great friends of mine and great writers). Please do continue to pick up the Pitch, though; Messrs Ferruzza and Packham are planning to keep writing on a freelance basis…until they start their own zines.