Liz Smith, Longtime New York Post Gossip Columnist, Dropped

NEW YORK — The New York Post is dropping Liz Smith's column this week to save money, leaving the legendary gossip columnist without a newspaper home in the city for the first time in 33 years. "I'm very sorry that that has come to an end, and that I wasn't valuable enough for them to keep me on," the 86-year-old Smith said Tuesday.

Smith said the daily newspaper declined to renew her $125,000 annual contract in a letter that said, "due to economic circumstances, they were the bearer of bad news and so forth."

Col Allan, the paper's editor-in-chief, said: "The Post is grateful to have been able to publish Liz Smith's legendary column for so many years. We wish her the very best for the future."

Smith writes a syndicated newspaper column that she said is carried by 70 papers around the country. She also publishes in Daily Variety and in Parade magazine, and is part owner of a Web site. Smith says she's also writing a novel and will never retire.

"I'm busy," she said. "I'm OK. I'm OK for a person who's been let go."

In New York, her column had appeared in Newsday until she left in a contract dispute in 2005. The Post had run her column six days a week, and cut it back to three days a year ago to cut costs, despite Smith's unsuccessful appeal to Rupert Murdoch.

Her last column in the Post will appear on Thursday. She's already written it.

"I just wrote the usual stuff," she said, "and then I said goodbye."

Comments

[1088]

Liz contract wasn't renewed because she is not evil and spiteful like the NYP bunch. Cindy Adams fits right in with those nasty propagandist. Good luck Ms. Smith, you always been a fair person with a good heart. God Bless

[marignymitch]

Oh, dang! But it's been a great run, Liz. A great run. Thanks for everything.

[jnik]

The Editor wishes her "the very best for the future"? C'mon, she's 86!

[wm1066]

Hmmmm, now maybe she will dish on the Post.
Ya gotta know they got skeletons galour.
Firing a gossip columnist is like trying to sit on a rattlesnake to stop the rattling.

[BUTCHER111]

Why not also cut the Chimp Cartoonist too?

[jaslyn]

How many people make it to 86 with that kind of paycheck?

[abatalks]

or look that good at 86! Wow. And Liz is a sharp as ever... she had a great run and I'm sure she'll be fine.... now if they drop " Madame Adams" they may as well fold. Well, maybe they should fold anyway... nah, they give us too much to talk about.

[killmenow]

I saw her being interviewed on CNN the other day. She looks absolutely amazing for 86, let alone 66.

[olddognewtrick]

Finally!

[lmab]

Now if we could just get rid of Barbara Walters and the crew at the V. What does that V stand for anyway?

[MissElaineous]

Civilization has truly fallen. BTW - she looks great for an octagenarian. I'd like to meet her stylist!

[jukesgrrl]

Liz was one of the first to raise a gossip column to "entertainment reporting." She didn't print rumors and she investigated stories in a way reporters used to (and so rarely do today). But this is a lesson for anyone who tries to extend a career indefinitely in a trendy business. Liz's subjects are not the people who make headlines today. Nothing wrong with that, but her work belongs in a magazine with a specific readership, not a daily newspaper that's desperately trying to be relevant in the world of new media.

[WyomingJack]

Gossip and rumors were about the only thing the New York Post ever got right.

[RJII]

right.

[killmenow]

How did Liz Smith manage on 125 thousand dollars a year in New York??

[Alvin4NY]

She was paid for her column by dozens of other newspapers across the country. She won't go hungry. It's too bad though. She's one of the few that manages to be kind while she's reporting.

[lmab]

A kind gossip columnist........ That's like saying JUMBO SHRIMP.

[thirteen13]

With pay from the other 69 papers that carrie her column.

[IntelligenceQuantifier]

Don't cry for Liz, the Grande Dame of entertainment chatter will continue to eat. Just seems during these economic times the NYP had to choose between Liz and Cindy, ultimately stuck with the latter.

[TrippyWeekender]

She hasn't paid for a meal in 20 years.

[voltage356]

Your better of Liz why stay on a sinking ship.

[jbgnyc]

I kinda wanted to see who would win the gossip til she dropped prize at The Post . I was rooting for Liz because she went to plays more often and always rooted for even the worst Broadway stuff. Cindy already looks sort of embalmed , much like her writing. But, hey, Peter Chernin just got the boot so Rupert could make room for his 34 year old son to take over the Fox-dom. Sorry, Liz., but at least you gave it a very, very, very long run.

[Riker]

I always wondered how Liz could work for such a horrible rag; she was much better than this Republican mouthpiece. Good for you, Liz. You deserve better.

[lmab]

Oh come on....she's a gossip columnist.