Time for a break

Editorial by Bob Ignizio

The Cleveland Movie Blog celebrated its fifth anniversary this past September. I didn’t acknowledge it at the time because I was too busy just keeping up with the regular reviews, editing, and social network promotion necessary to keep the site up to date and let people know about it. On top of that I also have real world obligations, so free time has been at a premium. So as much as I enjoy doing The Cleveland Movie Blog, after five years of putting in probably 30 hours a week on a website that isn’t making any money… well, that’s a lot of work for a hobby. Especially when I find myself reviewing something like PAUL BLART: MALL COP 2.

I’m not looking for sympathy, mind you. I brought this on myself. In fact I even roped other people into helping me with it. Writers who had years of experience writing professionally for Cleveland area alt weeklies Scene and The Free Times like Pamela Zoslov, Charles Cassady Jr., Pete Roche, and Milan Paurich all contributed greatly to the quality and quantity of reviews on this site. And I was pleased to provide an outlet for talented newcomers like Matt Finley, Joseph Anthony, Candice Lee Catullo, Wayne Richards, and others who have all done fantastic work here over the years. But I’ve reached a point now where I feel I need to try some other things, and if I keep doing the blog as well, none of my efforts will get the attention they need. So it seems as if a hiatus, at least, is in order.

My plan is to take off January and February for the most part, then reassess things. I might do a review or two in the meantime, but I don't expect the blog to come back on a regular basis until sometime in March. And when it does, there will probably be some changes. Exactly what those changes are remains to be seen, but in the main thing is I’ll be looking to reduce my workload, most likely by focusing more on movies I actually want to see and not trying so hard to cover every single thing that comes out. That's about it for now. See you back here in the spring.