Examiner papers hire Clifford Pugh

Of the recent casualties in the recent 27 percent purging of the Houston Chronicle newsroom, one of the biggest shockers was the axing of the newspaper's style critic, Clifford Pugh.

But the veteran scribe won't be on the mat for long.

The Examiner newspaper group, which produces weekly freebie papers in River Oaks, West University, Memorial and Bellaire, has hired Pugh as its newest columnist.

His first column will be in the April 9 edition, we're told.

Clifford worked for many years at the old Houston Post, then moved over to the Chronicle when the Post was bought out by the evil Hearst Corp. in 1995.

His stuff was in the Chronicle constantly, and most recently he blogged feverishly about the fashion scene. He even jetted off to Europe to do stuff for the daily.

So when he got whacked, it was a bit of a surprise.

Rich Connelly, in his Hairballs blog at the Houston Press, called the layoff of Pugh the most surprising of all the newsroom layoffs:

He's been covering stuff in Houston 4-evah (as we guess they might say in the fashion world he wrote about). He's versatile, witty, productive, took to blogging like he was born to it, even had somewhat of a brand name among the audience. We've got no idea if he was a pain as an employee or was simply overpriced in these grim times, but he still seemed like someone the bold new online Chron world would want onboard.

For the record, we can say without equivocation, because we know Clifford pretty good from his days at the Post, that he is a hail-fellow-well-met kinda guy and not a "pain" to work with.

So what will Pugh's new column entail?

In an exclusive online interview with The Brazosport News, Pugh told us this:

The Examiner folks have encouraged me to write about whatever I want. It will definitely start with a fashion/lifestyle emphasis. But who knows where it will go from there??

We've got an idea!

Howsabout something on whatthehell'sgoingon at the Chron?

Give us the lowdown, Cliffie!!