Ian Blackburn, who in 1991 began the Knoxville, Tenn., alt-weekly with Ashley Capps, Rand Pearson and Margaret Weston, is leaving the paper. In an article titled "Farewell, Ian," associate editor Jack Neely calls Blackburn, who's held the title of systems manager in recent years, a "computer nerd with a wild bohemian heart." According to the article, Blackburn's departure is due, at least in part, to the discontinuation of MetroBlab, the paper's online chat room. Neely calls MetroBlab "a subject of contention" and explains that associate publisher John Wright "pulled the plug on it last month."
