Attention laid-off Star writers: free blogs!
By JUSTIN KENDALL
The Sunday New York Times read like a want ad for laid-off journalists.
The Times reported that Six Apart is giving free memberships to recently fired journos and bloggers. But space is limited. Only 20 or 30 journalists will be accepted into the TypePad Journalist Bailout Program, which includes tech support, advertising revenue sharing and a spot on Blogs.com. A $150 value.
The Times report says Six Apart VP Anil Dash announced the program on November 14 with a blog post: “Hello, recently-laid-off
or fearful-of-layoffs journalist! We’re Six Apart (you know us as the
nice folks who make Movable Type or TypePad, which maybe you used for
blogging at your old newspaper or magazine) and we want to help you.”
So far, close to 300 have applied, the Times reports. Given the coverage in the Times — and the growing number of layoffs at papers across the country — that number is bound to rise.
On Friday night’s Week in Review, former Kansas City Star gossip columnist Hearne Christopher Jr. announced to KCPT Channel 19’s audience that he was starting a blog. Will he need the helping hand of Six Apart? Italics and hair mousse ain’t free, you know.
