Entertainment Weekly fires Owen Gleiberman | Update: he's now at BBC.com

[Dementeleus]

... yep, another significant critic gets let go. What's even more frustrating is that EW -- just prior to canning Gleiberman -- announced that it was basically not pay writers anymore. It would aggregate blogs posts from its contributors, who will "do it for the prestige".

 

That sucks.

 

I didn't always agree with Gleiberman's reviews, of course -- who agrees with a critic 100% of the time? But he was always interesting to read, and he (and Lisa Schwartzbaum (who was let go from EQ a year or two ago) helped put the magazine on the map. They were its movie critics from its inception in the late 80s.

 

Matt Zoller Seitz (at RogerEbert.com) has a write-up about the situation:

 

http://www.rogerebert.com/mzs/for-the-love-of-it-notes-on-the-decline-of-entertainment-weekly-the-firing-of-owen-gleiberman-and-the-ongoing-end-of-an-era

 

And here's a long interview with Gleiberman from back in 2004. If you read about his early days as a critic, you'll find he's basically like all of us. We like to think of critics as these snobby elitists who look down on popular stuff, but the fact of it is that many of them -- like us -- are just movies nerds at heart.

 

http://rockcriticsarchives.com/interviews/owengleiberman/owengleiberman.html

 

Q: What movie-going experience made you think, "I want to write about movies?"

 

A: The closest I came to having that lightning-bolt moment was probably seeing Carrie the day it opened in 1976. It was the Friday after Thanksgiving my freshman year of college. I was home with nothing to do, so I went to the mall to see a movie. I'd never even heard of Brian De Palma, but something in Carrie just spoke to me. It was such a gleefully sadistic yet tragic fairy tale, just so extreme in its trickery and emotions, that it got under my skin in a way that no movie ever had. Especially that shocker of an ending, with Carrie's hand poking out of the grave. I literally jumped out of my seat with terror, and so did half the audience. When the movie was over, I couldn't stop thinking, or talking, about it. It was as if I somehow had to prolong the high of watching Carrie by explaining the experience to myself.

[baumer]

That does suck.  So EW is basically saying that they will use blogs from people who will let them print their stuff for free, because it gets into a print magazine?  Wow, that seems awfully narrow minded.  

 

But this must mean that the magazine is in serious trouble if they are letting the critics go.  I used to by the magazine all the time. Every week, every issue.  In the last two years, I've bought maybe 2 or 3.

[Dementeleus]

That does suck.  So EW is basically saying that they will use blogs from people who will let them print their stuff for free, because it gets into a print magazine?  Wow, that seems awfully narrow minded.  

 

But this must mean that the magazine is in serious trouble if they are letting the critics go.  I used to by the magazine all the time. Every week, every issue.  In the last two years, I've bought maybe 2 or 3.

 

I still subscribed, but their new "freebie" model plus firing him was the last straw. I just cancelled my subscription and wrote an email to their customer service explaining exactly why.

[baumer]

If I was subscribing to their magazine, I would have canceled as well.

[BadAtGender]

That sucks. I haven't read EW in years, probably not since the 90s, but it used to be a mainstay, and I enjoyed Glieberman's reviews.

 

Also, not paying writers is complete bullshit. Any enterprise that tries to get people to do it for the prestige should be ruined.

[RichWS]

I subscribed to EW for years as a kid (thanks to my grandmother) and Gleiberman's reviews were one of the reasons why.

[MovieMan89]

I'm still subscribed but it's easy to see how much the magazine's quality has been decreasing in recent years. What I find the worst about them is they seem to be running rampant with writers who are insanely biased and can't report on anything without their biases interfering. Then again, I guess that's what happens when you don't actually pay your writers.

[Dementeleus]

That's a complaint with their existing feature writers, I guess. The "freebie writers" policy is only a week old or so.

[Water Bottle]

Well I'm not picking up EW ever again. I want people whose livelihood is on the line in telling me stuff, not people who do it as a hobby.

[MovieGuyKyle17]

Tell you the truth I stopped going and reading reviews on ew.com a few years ago. I got pissed at the critics (Mostly Lisa) because some of their reviews were awful and didn't go into any detail on why they hated or like the movie. I remember a few reviews were it was only 2 short paragraphs. 

[DAR]

My subscription ran out years ago. Every now and then I get "asked" to come back. I sort of got tired reading about the latest YA adaptation. I did enjoy many of their critics, Gleiberman, Schwarzbaum, Ken Tucker and Ty Burr. And I always enjoyed reading the Lost recaps that Jeff Jensen did, even though I felt myself saying what the fuck a lot

[TLK]

Rotten Tomatoes is killing film criticism and I say as someone who is completely agnostic on this issue. Most people who want to check the type of reviews a movie is getting only check RT score so it is a black box that outputs a movie score and it doesn't really matter whether the input is coming from 100 legit critics + 100 bloggers or 20 legit critics+180 bloggers. Quality of criticism is really irrelevant as long as you are capable of assigning a score out of 10 to a movie.

[DAR]

I still subscribed, but their new "freebie" model plus firing him was the last straw. I just cancelled my subscription and wrote an email to their customer service explaining exactly why.

In the MZS blog someone commented they canceled their subscription and included a copy of the email. Was that you?I do think Gleiberman will find a home somewhere he's too good a critic not to

[Dementeleus]

In the MZS blog someone commented they canceled their subscription and included a copy of the email. Was that you?

 

Nope, but I'm glad I'm not the only one.

[DAR]

If anyone is ever looking for some good writing on the internet then give Grantland a try. They have some really good pieces on there whether it's sports or pop culture. And their movie and tv critics Wesley Morris and Andy Greenwald are two of the best

[Jim Shorts]

I have a 2 year subscription to EW for like $25.  No wonder they can't afford to pay anyone.  

[Dementeleus]

If anyone is ever looking for some good writing on the internet then give Grantland a try. They have some really good pieces on there whether it's sports or pop culture. And their movie and tv critics Wesley Morris and Andy Greenwald are two of the best

 

Yep, I read Grantland all the time.

[Kvikk Lunsj]

Sad liked him,

[Michael Gary Scott]

Idk why I still have an EW subscription. The only writer they have I like is Dalton Ross.

[Dementeleus]

Cancel it, MGS!