Creative Loafing Hires Mitch Perry

Creative Loafing has hired Mitch Perry, assistant news director, to replaced departed pllitical editor Wayne Garcia. Perry is an excellent hire for Creative Loafing.

"I've always wanted to do print -- it's kind of an exciting move for me," said Perry, who expects to write a weekly column, edit community bloggers who contribute to Creative Loafing's Web site, moderate podcasts and write larger feature stories. "I had a couple of sleepless nights after the decision -- I was ready for a change, but when the time came, it was tough to do -- but now I'm psyched."

Perry will quit WMNF to work full-time at Creative Loafing. Perry has written blog posts at CL. Perry help revitalize WMNF's news department. His organization skills are greatly needed as CL attempts to become an internet-based content provider. I am curious if Perry will take CL's political coverage into a more progressive direction. Creative Loafing's problem is Stephen Hammill, online producer, has told in-house bloggers that quantity (of traffic) is more important than quality. This has resulted in posts with nude celebrity photos and other cheesy content. Making CL into a softcore porn sex site is not the business model for a successful alt-weekly. People can get real porn on the internet. Creative Loafing needs to go back to the investigative journalism and sense of fun that was the John Sugg era.

I wish Perry luck at his new job.

Update: the Perry quote was reported by St. Petersburg Times media columnist Eric Deggans. The reporting on Creative Loafing web editor Stephen Hammill was done my me. Sources have told me Hammill has become obsessed with web traffic.