Toronto Life Heading in New Direction: Down?
Posted on 07. May, 2010 by Simon in media, Toronto
By now most Toronto foodies have learned that Toronto Life magazine has ended its 23-year relationship with food critic James Chatto.
Lucy Waverman, food writer for the Globe & Mail broke the news on Thursday night via her twitter, and The Star has a follow up story today detailing the surprising and sudden end of Chatto’s award-winning work with Toronto Life.
Saying that Toronto Life is “heading in a new direction,” TL’s editor Sarah Fulford further went on to explain to The Star that “James’ type of column – the 3,000 word dining column….was a very particular kind of writing for a particular time and place… We’re not looking to replace James.”
The move is surprising given how many accolades Chatto has racked up at Toronto Life during his tenure. The natural question of course becomes — what direction is Toronto Life hoping to go in, if its future does not include a writer whose work has been internationally recognized and awarded?
Not to be all catty and bad-punny, but as someone who loves Toronto’s food scene, this leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Although Chatto tells The Star there is no animosity, one has to wonder if this doesn’t harken a dumbing down of content for Toronto Life due to inevitable cost cutting measures. Either the magazine believes it can’t make money with “old school” (read: intelligent and thoughtful) writing taking up precious pages, or it simply can’t afford it.
Either way, both Toronto’s magazine and restaurant communities seem like they lost on this one.
Anupa
May 8th, 2010
So what direction is it going in? Pretty soon it’ll be a tabloid vehicle for all of Toronto’s pseudo-celebs. When I think about Toronto Life, I think about food writing, why the eff would you get rid of your chief, celebrated, food writer?