In what they’re trumpeting as an exclusive, Defamer reports that the Detroit Free Press has elected not to replace their recently forcibly retired film critic Terry Lawson, and will fill his coulmn space with wire reviews:

We called the Detroit Free Press this morning and learned from a (very confused) HR rep that “We are not planning on replacing [Terry Lawson] at this time.” Very interesting. By our research, all of the other Top 20 newspapers in the United States have at least one major, well-known critic (yes, even the Arizona Republic). However, The Freep’s move clearly signals that there’s a changing tide in the amount of importance (and budget dollars) local newspapers allocate to coverage of the movie business.

The real news here may be that Defamer managed to publish 267 completely snark-free words about anything, let alone the decline of print film criticism. Associate editor Molly Friedman even closes with the seemingly sincere lament that “it still saddens us that there’s not enough room in the budget of a Top 20 newspaper to send someone to the movies a few times a week.”

In all seriousness, the Detroit Free Press‘ move is the latest in an epidemic of regional newspapers dropping their film critics. This is clearly a problem in the short term, but may turn out to be a positive on a longer timeline.

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