There\u2019s a gaping hole in the Tuesday morning newspaper now that the New York Times has dropped Joe Sharkey\u2019s weekly column.<\/p>\n
With little fanfare and zero explanation for the circumstances surrounding his exit, Sharkey offered a terse goodbye in the final paragraph of his \u201cOn The Road\u201d column in the March 31, 2015 paper.<\/p>\n
Sharkey wrote about domestic air travel from the perspective of a frequent flier. He wasn\u2019t knee-jerk negative as many who write about the aviation experience seem to be. Over a sixteen-year stretch that included the period immediately after 9-11, Sharkey never failed to file a weekly column. It was a great read for me given my interest in the subject.<\/p>\n
Knowing a bit about the day-to-day workings of a major airline, I roll my eyes at a lot of what\u2019s written about aviation both in the mainstream press and by friends on social media who may have had a bad flight experience. Sharkey didn\u2019t engage in that kind of hyperbole although he was plenty harsh in his take on aspects of the business when he had specific examples meriting criticism. Sharkey was great in assessing execution of screening processes by the TSA and was fair-handed in breaking down the ever-changing nature of the airlines\u2019 mile-redemption programs.<\/p>\n
The Times didn\u2019t explain why it stopped the Sharkey column. Public Editor Margaret Sullivan has made no mention of the sudden removal of such a prominent weekly piece. The now-gutted page Sharkey normally appeared on carried no advisory either on Sharkey\u2018s last day or Tuesday\u2018s subsequent.<\/p>\n
Sharkey told media writer Jim Romenesko last month that the Times ended On The Road because of constraints in its freelance budget. \u201cDidn\u2019t see this coming, frankly,\u201d said Sharkey in an e-mail to Romenesko.<\/p>\n
Today was the third Tuesday newspaper without Sharkey\u2019s column and another regular piece entitled \u201cFrequent Flier\u201d which felt like a companion to Sharkey\u2019s item but was done by another reporter. To fill the now empty space, the Times has run transportation-related news stories but has done so without regard for the familiar placement of the \u201cOn The Road\u201d and \u201cFrequent Flier\u201d columns on the same page.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to imagine Sharkey\u2019s weekly contribution costing the Times more than what\u2019s it\u2019s worth when you consider the readership the column built over sixteen years. Additionally frustrating is that the Times seems to have no replacement content in mind. This was a subject that consumed nearly a full page of the paper each week and now it\u2019s gone. At least explain in some small way through an editor\u2019s note – or through Sullivan\u2019s bullhorn – what the heck is going on when you shut down a page of your newspaper that people come to expect once a week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There\u2019s a gaping hole in the Tuesday morning newspaper now that the New York Times has dropped Joe Sharkey\u2019s weekly column. With little fanfare and zero explanation for the circumstances surrounding his exit, Sharkey offered a terse goodbye in the … Continue reading