Unceremoniously Firing Mr. Wiggles Part II: The New York Press, where being fired is just a "send" button away!

After the item we ran yesterday about the abrupt firing of "Mr. Wiggles" cartoonist Neil Swaab by the NY Press, we heard from former NY Press sex/dating columnist Judy McGuire, who wrote her "Dategirl" column there for over two years. Said Judy: I also got axed via the information superhighway. Except [Editor] Harry [Siegel] wasn't even man even do it himself--the day after he assured me my job was safe, he had a flunky drop the ax. Ouch! She gives a full account on her blog, with highlights like so: Like Neil, she found out by reading the paper that changes were afoot: "I noticed there was a new sex advice columnist and she was on the cover, posing in a naughty nurse outfit. I clicked on her column and discovered we were covering the same ground. Nobody had even told me they were in the market for a new sex columnist." When she asked Siegel, he assured her that her column was in no danger and "would continue running indefinitely." A hard copy of the paper would clear things up, she recalls him saying - her column was prominently displayed in front, and the naughty nurse's column was in the back "buried back in the tranny ads." This, in fact, was not the case; naughty nurse was on the cover (Ed. Her name is "Dr. Dot" and The Apiary article was updated to take out a reference to her and added a note clarifying that Dr. Dot did not "replace" McGuire per se - hmmmm). Apparently she dated Joey Ramone and once massaged a member of Def Leppard, though we're uncertain as to whether she poured any sugar on him. In response to her email to Siegel questioning the move, she recieved a response from "one of his lackeys" explaining that whoops, they had, in fact, decided to can her column. McGuire muses that Siegel's definition of "indefinitely" is something akin to "12 hours long." As long as we're on the topic, any other tales of woe from the beleaguered New York Press and it's beleaguered staffers and ex-staffers? Because we're running up quite a collection here. UPDATE: We asked the New York Press for comment, and heard back promptly from managing editor Tim Marchman: "All I have to say is that we thank them for the work they've done for the paper, regret any hard feelings between us, have nothing bad to say about them and wish them best luck." Ojectively classy, that.

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Unceremoniously Firing Mr. Wiggles Part II: The New York Press, where being fired is just a "send" button away!

Rachel

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