Goodbye ShopGirl

Kristen Andresen, the former Bangor Daily News reporter has quit her shopping blog. Read her last post on the BDN site here.

Andresen is right -- times are tough for newspapers these days. But Andresen had a sweet deal as ShopGirl. Not only did she get money from the BDN to buy stuff, she also got paid to blog -- something thousands of would-be fashion bloggers out there in the world would die for.

These days, a blog about shopping does seem a little luxurious, no? Andresen pushed shopping local, which is great advertising for a state where most of the business is small businesses, but reading about her purchases week after week made me a bit jealous. I mean, she gets paid by her job to buy stuff, and gets paid (quite well) to write about it. For a local newspaper who is no doubt struggling to make a profit while not laying off every reporter, this seems a bit unfair. If I'm jealous and I don't even work there I can't imagine how the other reporters felt.

No doubt the BDN wanted to cut Andresen's pay. And they wanted her to write about ways to save money on stuff other than cashmere gloves and skin care products. Fair is fair. And I don't blame Andresen for leaving. I do find it kind of unethical for her to push her new site in her BDN column. It left a "screw you guys" taste in my mouth.

ShopGirl had a good run. She broke the blogging barrier at the BDN and catapulted them into the new millennium. She's got a great job at UMaine and a bunch of stuff from her 8 years as ShopGirl. She has made a name for herself. That's what it's all about anyway.