My sister and her family are long-time residents of Santa Barbara -- poor kids! -- so I've been paying fairly close attention to the stories recently about the implosion of the newspaper in the town, the News Press.
Several top editors there have resigned, including well-respected Editor Jerry Roberts and columnist Barney Brantingham. The community is in an uproar, and billionaire owner Wendy McCaw, currently vacationing in Europe, has been vilified, along with her publisher, Travis Armstrong, for heavy-handed tactics and intrusion in the news process.
The Los Angeles Times has a good account today of recent developments, and Brantingham, a well-loved 46-year veteran of the Santa Barbara paper, wrote a lengthy piece for the Santa Barbara Independent, an alternative weekly in the community. It's wild stuff, but it's also serious business.
The credibility of the Santa Barbara newspaper is just about shot, and that's terrible news in this business. In the end, newspapers have little more than their credibility to sustain them. It's very sad. Several very good journalists are out of work, and Santa Barbara is without a reliable newspaper. Everyone loses.
its just the fox news model, the recent layoffs at the n.y. times,may be something to keep our eyes on,gee i hope judy miller stays on message..........