Mike James, editor of tv newsletter NewsBlues, says he’s stepping down after nearly two decades of reporting about reporting.
“Pending knee replacement surgeries and ongoing problems with skin cancer have made it physically impossible to continue at the current pace,” James told subscribers in an email. “I expect to publish the final newsletter on Friday, June 16.”
James tells readers he’ll keep putting out the same content until the last newsletter. “The snarkiness will remain,” said James.
We at TVSpy would like to wish Mike the best. In an ever shrinking world of media watchdogs, it’s sad to lose a member of the pack.
In his newsblues bio, James says he is a former sports anchor at WFTV in Orlando, WHAS in Louisville, WKYC in Cleveland, and NBC News in New York.
“He left television in 1980 to write for magazines and newspapers and was a regular contributor to the Washington Post and Miami Herald,” says his bio. “The Orlando Sentinel nominated him for a Pulitzer Prize in feature writing in 1995.”
Here are excerpts of the email:
Friends,
Later this year, NewsBlues will cease to exist in its current form.
After nearly 19 years and more than 4,100 daily insider newsletters for TV news professionals, your Surly Editor will retire this summer. Pending knee replacement surgeries and ongoing problems with skin cancer have made it physically impossible to continue at the current pace. I expect to publish the final newsletter on Friday, June 16. Whether it will be replaced by something else…something brighter and newer and more modern… remains to be seen.
In the meantime, NewsBlues will continue to publish daily, as it has for nearly two decades. The tone will not abate. The snarkiness will remain. Please wthis space for further updates.
Thank you for being a friend of NewsBlues,
Mike James, Editor