Anon92107: Right from the get-go, Manchester/Lynch told the San Diego audience that the paper would not be credible. First, they instructed reporters to be cheerleaders for business and the military. Then, Lynch declared that anybody writing about a Chargers stadium must be in favor of it. This was the same as saying: "We are a propaganda rag. Don't look for the truth here."

Then came the embarrassingly puerile front page editorials, the slanting of news copy in favor of DeMaio, the one-sided coverage of Filner, in which the paper was obviously manipulated by Goldsmith. And on and on. The paper got, and continues to get, what it deserves. Best, Don Bauder

anniej: Good point. During the Copley reign, in which I worked, the paper had a Republican slant, massaged Pete Wilson, hyped Nixon, protected the La Jolla/Rancho Santa Fe Beautiful People, etc. But that was when Republicans overwhelmingly dominated the county. That is no longer true: the city is now Democrat and the county split 50-50.

The Tea Party line is not going over in San Diego, particularly when it is presented in such an amateur way. The paper never seems to consider the demographic changes that have taken place in San Diego County. Best, Don Bauder

They're not going to abandon the far-right slant of the U-T. Hodges is replacing Lynch for business reasons only, because under Lynch the U-T is losing more money than even someone as wealthy as Papa Doug is willing to lose.

Hodges' job is to slow the financial bleeding, not to change the ideological approach.

Matt101: But eliminating the Tea Party bias, the puerile editorials, the front page editorials, the touting of such people as Dinesh D'Souza COULD help circulation and therefore both the top and bottom lines. In short, good, honest journalism could help that paper financially. However, the owner's purpose is to propagandize for his downtown development plans...even after, possibly, he kills the print edition and goes wholly or mainly online. Best, Don Bauder

ImJustABill: It was Doug Manchester himself who several years ago insisted on being called Papa Doug. Supposedly, the rationale was to set him apart from his son, but he could have insisted the son be called Doug Jr. The groom in the wedding in late December was Papa Doug Manchester. Sounds a little gauche. Best, Don Bauder

"Papa" almost seems like a semi-official title - I guess maybe we have a "Strong Papa" form of government?

ImJustABill: Astute observation. From now on, all items distributed by city government will be on Paparus.

"Ooompa. Oompa. Oompapa. My Pa's better than your Papa."

It saddens me, because Papageno in Mozart's Magic Flute is one of the most delightful characters in all opera. Best, Don Bauder

Sorry, I know about as much about opera as you know about movies, hehe.

ImJustABill: I have a dream. Papa Doug Manchester attended a Magic Flute. The only thing Papageno has wanted in life is a spouse so that the two can raise many children. Toward the end, Papageno discovers that spouse-to-be, named Papagena.

Papageno sings "Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Papagena!" Papagena sings, "Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Papageno!"

And that, folks, is how Douglas Manchester made the decision to call himself Papa Doug. Best, Don Bauder

As long as he doesn't want everyone to sing "Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa Doug".

ImJustABill: Why? Can't you sing? (Neither can I.) Best, Don Bauder

Visduh: You are right on every count. Publicly held corporations almost always say in their annual reports that their employees are their most important assets. Then they send all their jobs overseas and do everything possible to squash the labor unions.

As I have said many times, corporations actually did cater to several constituencies in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s: employees, communities, vendors, shareholders. Beginning in the 1980s, shareholders became the only constituency....especially the inside shareholders. This is at the heart of capitalism's slow self-destruction. Best, Don Bauder

Don, I plea again for you to renounce your citizenship! Go find a socialist paradise and live a happy life. Quit being the hypocrite who enjoys all the positives of a free market capitalist society, yet lives to bad mouth.

arky: I have no interest in being a socialist. It has already been proved that socialism doesn't work. I just think capitalism is destroying itself. It is being overrun by its own greed. And for that, I am sad. Best, Don Bauder

Burwell: I don't get to see the print edition, but I skim the online edition every day. I will take your word for it that the U-T has lost all those categories of advertising. I was there from 1973 to 2003 and I always thought the ad salespersons took the advertising for granted. They thought it was a right -- a privilege -- the company had. Initially, the U-T laughed off Craigslist as an invention by some young kid in a garage. Much of this should have been foreseen.

On the editorial side, the company was not aware that young people were not reading, and also unaware of the damage that the Internet would do.

It's worth retelling a story I have told before. In the late 1980s or early 1990s, I wrote a column about publicly held newspapers, and how they had a problem: research showed that young people were not reading. Copley was not mentioned because it was not publicly held. The general manager blew his stack and wrote to Helen and David Copley, screaming that the TV and radio stations would use my column to sell advertising. He went on to say that I was anti-Copley, anti-business, etc. If he had had any brains -- and he didn't -- he would have come to me and asked to see that Wall Street research, and taken it to heart. It was management like that which led to the Copley demise. It's probably even worse now. Best, Don Bauder

A friend who still works at a major newspaper (not the U-T) would agree with your assessment of ad sales at her paper. The big papers used to act as if the businesses who advertised should be honored to be associated with the newspaper.

Matt101: Since metro daily newspapers began to crater about eight years ago, one would think this arrogance would be evanescing by now. Best, Don Bauder

Question: why then would the "general manager" blow his stack if they saw things only as an honor? Why would they even care about TV or radio? Just so you know most print advertising in all forms, including this product, is less than what it was 10, 20, 30 years ago. Radio and TV have the same problems with DVR, 100s of channels, Pandora,.Iheart, etc. The answer is digital and a friend who works at the UT tells me they have over 3.2 million unique users a month on their U-T sandiego website. Highest of all local media and third to only Google and Yahoo. Sounds like they have a good plan for the future while still taking care of the baby boomers with disposable income, ready to buy and who are still reading the paper, at least for the next 20 years.

ayeis: If the U-T has such a good plan, why does it admit that its results are disappointing, and blame general economic conditions and problems in the newspaper business? And why does it cut out the 401(k) match and farm its chief executive out to work on mergers and acquisitions, appointing another executive to handle day-to-day supervision? Records show circulation is doing poorly. Tell us more about this great plan. Best, Don Bauder

So you think moving from print to digital is going to happen without issues from a major print product? One year of "disappointing results" would be a blessing given the 360 degrees that their company needs to take. My friend told me that the new executive in charge has a huge digital backround and not radio as the others, so that makes a lot of sense. Again my point is that they seem to be moving in another direction and it takes time and management is going to do what it must to get it done. I also heard from my friend, my source, that when they had the Equity Company they cut salaries up to 19% while things were changing and then made it up when goals were reached. Circulation has been falling for years, readership is still over 600K a day according to Scarborough, the nationwide monitor, and that is what really matters.. Perhaps you should research those facts. Does the Reader have the same eyeballs as 10, 20, 30 years ago, it certainly is a lot smaller, and what happened to all those black "Employment" product boxes they had across the county? Again, not sure why you don't understand the plan I have been informed of...GO TO DIGITAL and with 3.2 million UNIQUE USERS the inital progress seems to be working according to my friend whom I trust to give me the facts and really knows more than people who get open letters sent to them.

lucasoconnor: I suspect that but can't verify it. Certainly, just about everybody else is selling customer information. Best, Don Bauder

Response to Facebook comment by Bruce Cunningham: You are right. Hodges is a marketing guy. It's not surprising that his initiatives are in that direction. As you say, the U-T should focus on journalism. It won't. Best, Don Bauder

Response to Facebook comment by Stephen Green: Correct: the emphasis on sports was a shrewd move -- one that could be expected from Lynch, who spent most of his career in sports radio. Similarly, the added emphasis on social media platforms was a good move. Sadly, those positives were offset by the unreliability of the journalistic product. Best, Don Bauder

Response to Facebook comment by Gustav Goetsch: Editorially, the U-T has never been far left, or even remotely near it. I don't know what newspaper you were reading. Your statement, however, tells me that you stand to the far, far right. That is your privilege, of course. You now have more company in Congress than you once did. Best, Don Bauder

Response to Facebook comment by Chris Brewster: Yes, the U-T would benefit from a moderate approach to political and social issues. I can't see it happening under current ownership. Best, Don Bauder

Don: Yet the coverage in the sports pages is getting worse, not better. Of course, the entire paper is worse, not better.

aardvark: I skim the U-T online edition every day but spend very little time on sports.

Certainly, the loss of Tim Sullivan hurt the sports page. He was a scholar's sportswriter -- and no doubt still is, but, sadly in Louisville, Kentucky. He was fired because he wrote intelligently about subsidized stadiums. He didn't really oppose them, but told both sides of the issue. Upon arrival, Lynch said that anybody writing about a Chargers stadium had to lead cheers for it. Sullivan was doomed -- fired for being intelligent. Best, Don Bauder

HellcatCopley: Yes, those regular meetings were one of several reforms initiated by Human Resources head Bobbi Espinosa (I'm not sure I spelled either her first or last name correctly.) I only stayed for the first half hour of those meetings because I was busy. I just wanted to get the basic numbers. I remember being disappointed because the numbers were only compared with the company's goal. We didn't get the raw numbers as compared with previous years, at least in the things I was interested in.

I vividly remember one survey of non-top level management. We were asked if we felt the newspaper had good top management. Not a single person said yes. So the score was zero -- nada. At the meeting to discuss the results, we were all red-faced, and so, too, were the top editors. Best, Don Bauder

Response to Facebook comment by Connie Gargrave Swanson: On the national level, Republicans are also split between the moderates and the Tea Partiers. The U-T is chasing the wrong market by aiming for the Tea Partiers in San Diego. This is one of the reasons for the disappointing year the company had in 2013, and probably in earlier years. The employees get punished by the ending of the 401(k) match. Best, Don Bauder

HellcatCopley: Very interesting analysis. I do know that readers, noting the absence of a copy desk, catch the multiple grammatical errors. So that, at least, can be interesting.

Actually, I am not sure that the current Tea Party U-T appeals all that much to the La Jolla Beautiful People. Yes, many are arch-conservative. But are they THAT conservative? Did they nod in agreement when G.W. Bush was named one of history's best presidents while Obama was one of the worst? Or did they chuckle?

Even the BPs might prefer a paper that is held in high esteem, whatever its politics, to one that is a joke. Best, Don Bauder