Hi everyone. Just wanted to let you know that today is my last day as editor of Idolator. The site will continue on, and I will continue to write about music, but we’ve decided to part ways. Despite my nominal status as a “writer,” I am straight-up terrible at goodbyes. So I just have a list of people to thank before I exit stage left.
Thank you to Brian Raftery, Lockhart Steele, and Nick Denton for calling up a music writer from the baseball-house-organ minors. Thank you to Jeff Leeds and the folks at BuzzMedia for putting up with me from 3,000 miles away all these months. Thank you to Jess Harvell for being a terrific foil. Thank you to Christopher R. Weingarten, Lucas Jensen, Dan Gibson, Anthony Miccio, and Mike Barthel for being awesome co-bloggers. Thank you to Maggie Bandur, Andy Beta, Chuck Eddy, Tim Finney, John Gary, Alex Goldberg, Matt Goldenberg, Rohin Guha, Eric Harvey, Rob Kemp, Molly McAleer, Chris Molanphy, Kate Richardson, Dan Rivkin, and Al Shipley — and anyone else who I might have forgotten, please accept my deepest apologies — for pitching in with some of the best music writing I ever had the privilege to edit. Thank you to all the incredible commenters who added to every bit of this site’s essence, to anyone who ever linked to something I wrote, to the people who transformed from e-mail addresses to friends over the past three-plus (!) years, to you reading this right now. I am so lucky to have done this for so long.
If you want to find me, I’ll be around the Internet… try as I might, I can never stay away for too long. You know?
-30-
Spice Girls - Goodbye (VideoClip) [Dailymotion]
goodbyes
It’s Time (For Me) To Say Goodbye
Categories:
goodbyes
goodbyes
Cosign all. But at least now Maura can devote her full attention to her other blog at gerardvsbear.com.
Well this is a real kick in the teeth on this early, dreary Chicago morning.
Good luck, Maura!!!
Maura,
You are truly too good for the crumbbums at Buzznet, you deserve bigger and better things. This was a music blog done right, you have a lot to be proud of here — still, it is time for you to find a better home.
Maura leaving Idolator < My Humps
Wow. It really is an end of an era. Thank you, Maura, for being the first person to pay me to write about music. And thank you for all the good times here. I never commented as much as I should/could have — but I’ll really miss this little community. It won’t be the same without you. xoxoxo
I’m completely gutted. Idolator is one of the last sites I can think of that felt personal without being *about* the blogger herself. At this stage in my life I travel so far out of critical/writerly circles that this place felt like a refuge for that side of my personality.
Maura, you did a terrific job, and please know that this particular reader has a tremendous amount of gratitude and appreciation for your work.
Wait WHAT?!? You’re leaving? I feel blindsided.
Good luck and success in all you do. I’ll miss you here!
Congrats on a great run, Maura. Looking forward to seeing your byline pop up elsewhere!
Well, this sucks. Sigh….anyway, despite only commenting about 3 times in total, your writing over the past couple of years definitely made my work week waaaaaaaay better, and got me into some music I NEVER would’ve listened to otherwise. You’ll be missed!!
Anyway, good luck with everything! OK, time to go check out this “maura.com”….
Blue sadface of death.
I would say that you “rocked” the internet, but I know that you don’t really like this term. Thanks for giving an adult a place to crow about Fall Out Boy. Good luck!
Booooo!
well, dammit. now where can i go for great music analysis sprinkled with “law & order” references?
sorry to see you go, but i look forward to seeing you pop up elsewhere.
Is a post-Maura Idolator even worth visiting? Maura wrote 90% of the posts here…
Buzznet, I’m now past the initial shock stage, and have moved on to anger. You guys suck.
waaaaaaaaaaah!
your news makes me feel like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb2NW3QfonI
but i’m glad i was able to meet you in chicago last year and tell you in person how much i appreciate this blog and the amazing work you put into it.
best wishes on your future endeavors.
Oh no! Oh my! I’m just devastated. Maura, Idolator was always my first stop on my daily rounds of the internet - simply essential reading, especially during Idol season. Also, your appreciation for (and gossip about) UK girl groups kept my addiction to Girls Aloud and Sugababes perpetually stoked. You’ve introduced me to a number of bands I might otherwise never have had occasion to hear (Joy Formidable for the win!), and been a tireless champion for artists who deserve far more attention and sales than they get (hello Charlotte Hatherley! hello Siobhan Donaghy!).
Whither now for my Sugababes updates? Whither now for my Katy Perry related hate/snark? Whither now for Gokey bashing?
Speaking of whom… I will now always remember you by this song, which I was listening to when I read this tragic post.
http://www.movieline.com/2009/11/danny-gokey-understands-poor-people-jesus-on-new-excruciating-single.php
(Maybe you and Karina Longworth, recently retired from Spoutblog can unite your powers for some totally awesome music/film/media blog. Or something… I can’t take losing both of you in two weeks).
Jake
(why oh why did I wait till now to make my first, and now last, post….)
@dsven: probably not. I will only be staying for Chris Monalphy…unless he’s leaving too. If that’s the case, then congratulations, Idolator, you are out of my Firefox favorites.
sorry Chris. I spelled your last name wrong…”Molanphy”, “Molanphy”, “Molanphy”….
…AND you squeezed one last first-class trip out on the company dime before departing, well done!
This really is devastating. I loved that this was a “cool” music blog that embraced all types of music, not just the Pitchfork-approved shit.
Keep on keeping on, Maura. Good luck to you where ever you may go.
Maura, best wishes and best of luck. Idolator won’t be the same. Wherever your next destination is writing-wise, I’m sure we’ll all follow there. (those days when I worked with you at your job before Idolator seem like a million years ago).
that’s too bad for us, but on to bigger and better things for you! all the best!
Best of luck on your future endeavors. I’ll really miss what you did here. Idolator has introduced me to so many new acts, and also (in cases like Jarvis or Kelly Clarkson or Amerie) written many great things about the ones I already knew and loved (or, in other cases, knew and hated). Your posts were always wonderfully written, and excellent reads, even if I didn’t entirely agree. Idolator has long been one of my favorite blogs, not just of music blogs, but of sites in general, and it is your work that made it so.
(Sidenote: I’m not sure how much I’ll keep reading, either, if 100 and Single is gone, too.)
After twelve years as a professional writer, I have never had a better editor than you. I only wish I had gotten to write more for you.
Good luck out there, Maura. You made this site what it is, and ought to be mighty proud of that.
Cheers.
I guess I should be treating this as sucky news. But I think it’s rather amazing that, during her three years of Idolatorizing, Maura never abandoned her integrity, her smarts, or her love of Tapemasters Future of R&B mixtapes. She also refused to succumb to the sort of reflexive nanny-nanny-boo-booism that, as a music blogger, was her God-given right. Maura’s a good egg. Scratch that: A GREAT egg. And though I’m sure her absence will be felt, I’m genuinely excited to see what she does next.
Thanks, Maura, for giving me the coolest job I ever had, even though I really didn’t know how to write so good.
The world that is Idolator feels bankrupt without you. While I wish whomever is running this site luck, I would urge them to work very hard at having 1/10th of Maura’s fortitude and skill. If you manage to get that far, you’ll just be starting to be the writer and editor that she has become.
Maura, it has been a great honor watching you come into your own. It really bums me out that I’m finally well enough to get back into the action, and you’ve moved on. Wherever you land and whatever happens, I am proud to have you as a friend. May I some day have the power to express to you my gratitude and admiration for your work by giving you the same opportunities you gave to so many of us.
crap! go on vacation for 3 days and come back to find this has happened… well, best of luck in your future endeavors, Maura, and see you later Idolator (since, having looked at all the new posts, it now appears to suck very muchly).
I never cared about American Idol or a lot of the pop stars Idolator covered; I read it because of *how* that stuff, and a lot of stuff that did interest me, was covered.
Thanks for an entertaining read over the last few years. Goodbye, Maura. And goodbye, Idolator.
“I never cared about American Idol or a lot of the pop stars Idolator covered; I read it because of *how* that stuff, and a lot of stuff that did interest me, was covered.”
I’ve been trying to find a way to describe how I felt about this place, and this is pretty much it. Well said.
Good luck in your future work, Maura. It’s been a fun ride.
This seems to be shaping up like the Ben Lyons/Ben Mankiewicz version of “At the Movies.”