San Diego — The great debate over the demise of the Union-Tribune's freestanding book section rages on, led by outspoken Del Mar literary agent Sandy Dijkstra. "My point is that even though the U-T's revenues may not be quite as HUGE as they have been in the past, you still own San Diego, so we book readers must wonder why you cannot afford to continue the Book Review, especially when other sections are being kept, although they too have little advertising," wrote Dijkstra in a recent e-mail to U-T editor Karin Winner and Chris Lavin, senior editor for special sections, copied to local media and cultural types.

Lavin replied with a ringing defense of his boss: "Karin Winner has guided this newspaper from some pretty dark days to make it one of the best regional newspapers in America and I appreciate that you see the value it brings, even stacked up against bigger papers with much deeper benches. She does not make changes without a lot of thought and whenever she must reshuffle the deck, Karin challenges her managers to find innovative ways to preserve the service our journalists provide to local readers."