RIP Inside Ed

A letter sent to The Baltimore Sun:

I am writing to express my anger and sadness at the demise of the Baltimoresun.com Inside Ed blog. It is clear that the personnel shifts have de-emphasized coverage of Baltimore City Schools and cut back on the feeding and caring required by this blog.

As your print edition has become smaller, the web edition of the Sun needs to become more engaging and vibrant, but Inside Ed is becoming smaller and less interesting every day. I would like to say that I am a subscriber to wield some amount of clout, but honestly after subscribing for more than 20 years you lost my subscription several years ago with one of the massive and unpleasant redesigns (aka dumbing down). Until I started reading and posting to Inside Ed about a year and a half ago you had totally lost my attention - I had moved to the web and Slate was much more satisfying than what was then called sunspot.net. Then because of reading the Inside Ed blog I started reading Sun stories again, starting with the Ed beat and moving on to other local coverage. I was checking the website several times a day, reading and putting a lot of time and effort into contributing to the conversation.

The future path of Inside Ed is fairly obvious (and depressing) at this point - fewer City School posts, slow approval and posting of comments, attention shifting away, summer break with even less posting followed by death by lack of interest. This is a shame because I think Inside Ed as a forum really did help City Schools which used to be a cause that the Sun cared a great deal about. There will also be a lot less educated and thoughtful people looking at your site when Inside Ed stops being relevant.

I am fairly sure that this comment will not change Inside Ed's path, but since I'm not commenting on the blog anymore I've got some spare time right now.

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I received the following response from the Sun (maybe because I sent my letter directly to monty.cook@baltsun.com as well as to feedback@baltimoresun.com, so perhaps others should contact him directly)

Thank you for your note and your concern.

We have not, in fact, de-emphasized our coverage of Baltimore City Schools and remain committed to the same high-quality coverage we have provided in the past. With Sara Neufeld's departure we are working quickly to identify the best person who will bring expert reporting skills to that beat.

Additionally, our Inside Ed blog will continue. We expect that it should remain a vital and vibrant home for our coverage of city schools.

We appreciate your patience. We believe your patience will be rewarded with the same type of news and information you came to expect from The Baltimore Sun with relation to its coverage of city schools.

Please don't hesitate to contact me with suggestions or complaints.

Best, Monty

MONTY COOK Senior VP/EditorThe Baltimore Sun 501 N. Calvert St.Baltimore, Md., 21202 (410)-332-6469