BY DAN
KENNEDY
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Thursday, April 14, 2005
A BOSTON INSTITUTION LOST. A
long-rumored, much-dreaded move has come to pass: the
Atlantic
Monthly, a legendary
Boston institution, is being uprooted and moved to Washington, the
home of owner David Bradley. Romenesko has posted the
memo.
This is truly awful news. Bradley
has been a reasonably good steward since buying the magazine from
Mort Zuckerman, but owners come and owners go. Bradley may have the
legal right to yank the Atlantic out of Boston, but he doesn't
have the moral authority, any more than he would to roll up the
Boston Common and spread it out a few blocks from Capitol
Hill.
In October 2003 I did a
column
on how the magazine was faring following the tragic death of Michael
Kelly, who had stepped down as editor in order to report on the war
in Iraq. I asked Bradley about rumors of a Washington move, and he
responded by e-mail that "the honest answer is that this is proving a
harder issue than I had imagined. My original thinking (and
statement) was that Atlantic would remain in Boston. As it
remains. The problem, principally for my account, is that I'm finding
it hard to lead a culture at such distance. Whatever my skills, they
do not include a strong public presence, a natural gift for
leadership."
Well, now he's done it. Almost as
bad, managing editor Cullen Murphy has decided to step down rather
than make the move. It's one more sign that Boston just doesn't
matter anymore.
posted at 5:05 PM |
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MEDIA LOG ARCHIVES
Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
