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Dance criticism has taken a big hit recently.  Hard on the heels of Deborah Jowitt's sudden departure from The Village Voice, The Orange County Register has lost dance critic and former NAJP fellow Laura Bleiberg.  Apparently, Bleiberg was the last full-time newspaper dance critic in all of California.  

On The OC Register's Arts Blog, Bleiberg admits that she is not sure if the Register will replace her with another staff dance critic.  She is leaving the Register to join South Coast Repertory as Associate Director of Development.

Another former NAJP fellow Valerie Takahama also left The Register in August, after working there 19 years.  She says part of the reason she was let go was that "they felt they didn't need an architecture writer anymore."

Critic Elizabeth Zimmer has just posted the news on artsjournal.com that critic Deborah Jowitt, who for four decades covered dance at the Village Voice, was fired from her staff position -- although she's welcome, apparently, to continue writing as a cheaper freelancer. Quite a collection of critics, those Voicers who've been canned ...

UNITY, the alliance of four national journalism associations promoting diversity (Asian American Journalists Association, National Association of Black Journalists, National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and the Native American Journalists Association) recently released its list of workshops for its 2008 quadrennial convention.  Of its more than 100 workshops, not one covered arts journalism.

There's a workshop about business journalism, one on health coverage, and even one on - get this - gossip reporting!  Remember, like the Olympics, this convention only occurs once every four years.

The NAJP submitted a proposal for a workshop called "Promoting Diversity Through Arts Reporting."  And despite having a fabulous panel that included a Pulitzer Prize winner and one of the most respected magazine editors in the country, the selection committee passed over our idea.  We wondered what we could have done better, what we could change if we were to apply in 2012.  Maybe we just shouldn't submit a proposal about... arts coverage!  

What does it say about our field when a group preaching diversity leaves arts journalism out of its own diverse agenda?

How's this for niche marketing?

Obviously aware that consumers with a twisted sense of humor are gathering for the hit series "Dexter," advertisers are anchoring some of their less savory clients to the prime-time Sunday show.

During this week's episode - about the increasingly messy double life of a Miami forensic scientist-serial killer -- there wasn't a single commercial block that didn't showcase something of a sanguinary nature.

The evening began with a spot for the "30 Days of Night" zombie DVD and wound up with a preview for the upcoming creepfest "Shutter."

Wedged in between was DirecTV's takeoff on "Misery," with Kathy Bates reprising her Oscar-winning role as Annie Wilkes. This time, however, Annie shows author Paul Sheldon (James Caan) some mercy: She hobbles him ... but lets him keep high-def sports.

 Hey, when you've got a captive audience, you might as well get out the sledgehammer.

 Contact Lovell at glovell@aol.com

Roger Catlin figured his job might be safe after his newspaper was sold by the "faceless" Tribune Co. But no:

New owner or not, it is part of the same sad march to downsizing we've been on for a decade. We've seen it before: with the best people (and those still marketable enough to get jobs elsewhere) taking off, leaving behind a lesser paper, empty desks, and the rest of us slugs to work even more to take up their duties.

I shouldn't take this personally.

Among TV writers with whom I'm associated, after all, this is not an uncommon thing. After decades of service and knowledge more vast than most network executives, they are laid off, outright fired or sent back to the tiny town bureaus where they began their careers - there are, after all, fires and car thefts to cover.

Longtime critic Terry Lawson took a buyout over the Holidays, and the newspaper isn't replacing him. Defamer has the news:

By our research, all of the other Top 20 newspapers in the United States have at least one major, well-known critic (yes, even the Arizona Republic). However, The Freep's move clearly signals that there's a changing tide in the amount of importance (and budget dollars) local newspapers allocate to coverage of the movie business. The Freep appears to be content to run wire reviews for new releases...