Farewell to the TaxProfBlog

Blogging can be a thankless and burdensome task. We should all be grateful for Dean Paul Caron's many year or service.

In 2011, while clerking on the Sixth Circuit, I entered the academic job market. At the time, I checked Paul Caron's TaxProfBlog regularly. Paul compiled information about VAPs, fellowships, and other aspects of academia. I reached out to Paul, and asked if he would meet. He graciously agreed!

I'll never forget the meeting. We caught up at a Starbucks near the campus of the University of Cincinnati. Who walks in, but the former mayor of Cincy: Jerry Springer. Yes, that Jerry Springer. Paul offered some invaluable advice about the academic market and how to approach the meat market. And Jerry offered some useful advice of how to handle conflicts at faculty meetings. (Okay, I made up the last point, but it would be hilarious to see Jerry manage a hiring meeting.)

Since then, I have been fortunate to keep Paul in my circle of contacts. I still read his blog daily, and often will email him about certain items he may wish to cover. Paul's output is staggering. He has published more than 55,000 posts, on top of his full-time job as a Dean! Paul also answers emails at all hours of the day, a remarkable feat. He doesn't miss a thing.

Alas, all good things come to an end. In 2023, I offered a requiem for SCOTUSBlog, which seemed destined to drift away, though thanks to a bizarre turn of events, it is not being bolstered by The Dispatch. But now, a pillar of the legal blogosphere will draw to a close. TypePad, the once-popular blogging software, is shutting down at the end of September. Paul has announced that he is shutting down TaxProfBlog. I will preserve his final post since the current page will soon vanish:

TaxProf Blog has been a labor of love these past 21 years. I have been puzzling over when would be the right time to stop. Typepad, the platform on which TaxProf Blog is hosted, made the decision for me when it announced on August 27th that it will discontinue all blogs effective September 30th. At this stage in my life, I am not interested in starting anew on a different platform. I hope to find another home for the massive content of my 55,780 TaxProf Blog posts. If I do, I will post the link on this post before September 30th and notify the subscribers to my tax and legal education email lists.

I am proud of the role TaxProf Blog has played in the tax and legal education communities over the past 21 years. My boyhood dream was to be a sports reporter covering the Boston Red Sox on a daily basis for The Boston Globe (after it became obvious even to me that my dream of playing first base for the Red Sox would not pan out). My wife Courtney early on said the blog scratched that itch for me in academics rather than sports.

Before TaxProf Blog sunsets on September 30th, I would greatly appreciate it if readers who have enjoyed my tax, legal education, and/or faith coverage through the years would drop a short note in the comment section at the bottom of this post. When I eventually retire, I will cherish the memories of the time I spent writing this blog for over two decades in the hope that it enriched your lives just a little bit.

Other legal blogs may also shut down, including the valuable Mirror of Justice. What a loss.

Blogging can be a thankless and burdensome task. We don't earn any actual income for doing it, and receive countless attacks from people who may never write any publicly. Indeed, social media for better or worse, has supplanted much of what made the legal blogosphere so important. I started blogging in the Fall of 2009, and still enjoy the process. But I do not write nearly as much as I used to, and I see diminishing returns.

We should all be grateful for Dean Paul Caron's many year or service. No one will replace him.