Changes are afoot in the coverage of art at the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Inquirer art writer Ed Sozanski, our town’s big cheese in art coverage (measured by publication circulation), is indeed taking the buyout, reported my husband Murray, who is doing the same.
When I spoke to Sozanski less than a week ago at the Beauford Delaney press preview, he said he was still sitting on the fence, but he had put his name in for the buyout and was told he could have it if he wanted it. He thought that if he did take it, he would still be writing the long Sunday pieces on a freelance basis.
So it was or is or will be. Sozanski will be doing the Sunday pieces on a contractual basis, and the Friday Weekend section shorties will go to someone else (the same little birdie told me art editor Jeff Weinstein already has someone in mind). So look for more of the same.
My guess is Sozanski was just waiting for the ink to dry on the Sunday contract.
In all fairness, Sozanski was working way too hard for someone who is 69 years old. He was working way too hard for someone 50 years old. To write as much as he did, he had to see a lot of art, digest it and spit it all out.
I had the nerve to suggest that if he had something he wanted to write about that didn’t fit the Sunday format, he should give it to artblog. He laughed and said, “Just for fun?” I’m not really expecting much, but maybe the spirit will move him.
