Has the Internet Killed Another Magazine?

There is word this week via The Hollywood Reporter that one of my formerly favorite magazines has lost another writer: Entertainment Weekly let go of Owen Gleiberman, their main film critic.

I have subscribed to EW for a long time, at least ten years, and it seems as if it is now circling the drain, to borrow a phrase from Fark.com. Last year, another film critic, Lisa Schwarzbaum, left EW and my favorite TV reviewer, Ken Tucker, also left. Even though I have subscribed for a long time, the only three writers I could have named at EW were those three.

Of course, I didn’t always agree with their reviews, but they were usually helpful in determining what to watch and what to skip. In what has to be viewed as a related story, EW announced the unveiling of a new feature of their website, The Community, where passionate bloggers (read: unpaid writers) will recap tv shows and write articles. While I have enjoyed fan-drive tv sites in the past, like “The Fuselage” for Lost, it is hard to believe that amateur writers will be able to draw the same kind of audience that their professional writers could.

I guess its just a sign of the times, but I can’t see renewing my subscription if this is the direction they're headed.