(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — After 21 years, an advice columnist for the Chicago Tribune has decided to leave.
Amy Dickinson says she loved writing the "Ask Amy" column, but it was time to step away from the daily grind and she wanted to do it on her own terms.
Dickinson was hired after the death of legendary advice columnist Ann Landers 21 years ago.
Dickinson says she's not retiring and will continue to offer advice through her popular newsletters.
“Advice columnists tend not to leave their gigs because it's very lucrative and you get to be thought of as this wise person. There's a certain amount of, you know, status to that,” Dickinson said.
“But I thought to myself, what if I was maybe the first advice columnist not to die at my desk? What would that be like?”
Dickinson says she wanted to get away from the grind of a daily column and leave on her own terms, but she says she will continue to offer advice through her popular newsletters.
“I will use that to continue to reach readers. I was an early person to start on substack and I have one newsletter, which is just essays and the other, which is advice. So, that'll keep going.”
Dickinson says she's also writing a novel, as well as opening a children's library in the town where she lives, Freeville, New York.
The last "Ask Amy" column in the Tribune runs on June 30.
It's being replaced by a column called "Asking Eric" written by R. Eric Thomas, a playwright, screenwriter and bestselling author.
Listen to WBBM Newsradio now on Audacy!
Sign up and follow WBBM Newsradio
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | TikTok