Logan's Run - The WatchTown Edition

I will be very honest. I visit Monochrome, Fratello, Watch Pro, and yes even Hodinkee pretty much every day. And while it used to be to follow what my friends and colleagues in the Fourth and Fifth Estates of Watch Town were up to, lately more and more it's to read the tea leaves. And it has been interesting to see the shift of content and volume coming from Hodinkee. But more interesting is what appears to be a game of musical chairs.

Shamelessly borrowed from the world-wide infoweb

There is no denying that there was a steady departure of long-time (at least by blog/webzine standards) writers over the past year or so.  Cara Barrett, Jack Forster, Jon Bues, Cole Pennington, Jason Heaton, and Logan Baker. But the departures continued with Nick Marino also disappearing from the masthead. Of the new/newer crew Sarah Miller and Nora Taylor no longer appear on the masthead. Style Editor Malaika Crawford is now (at least insofar as the masthead goes) the only female writer.

In fairness, change is inevitable. But from a mighty staff of dozens, only 5 or 6 writers (editors) currently grace the masthead as of this post.

In the blog formerly known as Tempus Fugit, I commented more than regularly on what has grown into cartel of media outlets. I still stand by that assessment. More often than not, I will read about a new release in one of the big outlets and receive the "B Team" press release later that day from the brand. But here's hoping that the watch media cartel made up of those big dogs will give way to more of a meritocracy. There is a lot of good writing on watches out there, hopefully brands with marketing and advertising budgets will start to support it, even if the title does not begin with an H, like that other shameless cartel member, Henki Time ; )