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Koyen Out

In the wake of the whole “Funny Things About the Pope’s Death” cover story brouhaha, Jeff Koyen has resigned as editor of New York Press. In his two-year tenure, Koyen presided over something like four different redesigns, and lurched the paper considerably far to the left (that’s bad), but he did publish me a couple of times (that’s good).

It’s probably the right move, although the publisher’s rationale sounds like B.S., and calling for New Yorkers to “exercise their right to take as many of these rags as they can and put them in the trash” was not one of mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner’s finer moments. But still- was this turn of events attributable to a “chill on free speech”? No. Shockingly poor editorial judgment? Yes. The back-from-hiatus The Minor Fall, the Major Lift says it best:

If you're going to do a deliberately controversial piece about the death of the Pope and you use the word “funny” in the title, it sort of behooves you to, you know, actually be funny at least one out of fifty-two times, even if you are writing for a journal whose main function is to provide lonely men with tranny fixations a chance to make new friends.

You'll know the Press is screwed if they start losing those advertisers.

Posted by Stephen Silver at March 7, 2005 09:42 PM