Why Did I Shut Down the Bastion Instead of Finding a Replacement Editor?

People are chattering about the end of the Bastion. Most are saying "I am sad to see you go, but I understand, I wish you the best; thank you for all you've done." Others ask "but why?" and some are saying "I'm disappointed you didn't try to find someone to replace you."

Since last December, I have been trying to find a replacement editor, and I couldn't. Nate and Kristy and I agreed that what made the Bastion work was Nate's guidance and the chemistry between me and Kristy (and she's not available to take on 100% responsibility for the site). Nate said point blank, after my first few search attempts, if it couldn't be me or Kristy running the site, he really didn't trust anyone else. Besides that, even just training a replacement would require more time than I have to spare right now.

I was thrilled to have been chosen to run the Bastion when we started over two years ago, and it's been a great experience. Kristy was like my long-lost sister from the instant we met, that alone was worth it. And it's led to so many new relationships and opportunities, well beyond what I could have imagined.

But things are snowballing now, and I need more time to focus on new priorities. It's at least ten hours a week to properly maintain a site like this, whether or not you have other writers and photographers contributing. It's a lot of work, no money, and more email than you could ever possibly keep up with.

Having said that, I hope another Chicago comedy site pops up. We need one. Check out Seattle's comedy blog "Clog," which is on a Blogger account. Blogger would be the perfect place to host and publish a new Chicago comedy blog. It's free, the interface is super easy to use, and you can accommodate multiple authors without much fuss. You could drop in pictures, videos, a Google calendar and everything. I know there are some newbies out there thinking about this. Wrangle a bunch of your dependably good writer/photographer friends and go for it! You could call yourselves thebrastion.org. Or tehbastion.org. Get to it!