Reducing employment only exacerbates the editorial problems of which you speak. It appears to me that the U-T is already running too lean, at least on the editorial side. Best, Don Bauder

IS U-T OWNER AIMING TO BUY ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER PARENT? The Wall Street Journal says this morning (June 15) that talks that Denver's MediaNews Group will buy Orange County's Freedom Communications have broken down. Freedom owns more than 100 newspapers including the Orange County Register. Both companies went through rapid bankruptcy reorganizations last year. Freedom's newspapers could be worth $350 million and its TV stations $400 million, says the Journal. The takeover talks broke down over price. Therefore, rumors that U-T owner Platinum Equity is eyeing Freedom have resurfaced. Another possible buyer of Freedom would be Tribune Company, owner of the Los Angeles Times, says the Journal. That rumor has been around before, too. Tribune is still in a very ugly bankruptcy. Best, Don Bauder

The beat goes on at the Incredible Shrinking Newspaper. I will so often see BBC news headlines on-line one day, and they don't get into the Light News until two days later. That is commonplace. Yet with the little space remaining in the rag, much is often used on huge photos and graphics, such as today when the E section, Food, had on its front page a color photo of a teapot and teacup, taking up about a third of the available space, that accompanied a "feelgood" feature story about teas. Yet murder trials now fail to get mention in the miserable effort, and the local folks who still depend on it to know what's going on in the county miss major news.

Your criticisms are astute, as always. When Platinum Equity bought the paper, management announced that the emphasis would be on local news. That is a good strategy in this economic environment. However, three factors, in particular, undermine efforts to cover local news: 1. The layoffs; 2. The hiring of inexperienced reporters, who come cheap; 3. The hiring of editors who spent time at the Orange County Register, where U-T editor Jeff Light spent so much of his career. As someone who has covered San Diego for 38 years, I can tell that many reporters are too green and their editors are still not familiar with San Diego. Wiping out of the copy desk makes the paper look grammatically sloppy. Worse, the paper is propagandizing for ridiculous corporate welfare projects, such as a Chargers stadium, as its predecessor did. And as you point out, the coverage of national and international news is a case of too late with too little. Anybody buying the U-T ink and paper edition or reading it online has to go to other sources to get a world view. Best, Don Bauder

Other publications such the Reader are trying to cover some of the things you mention. If you go back about 30 years, the radio stations had news departments. They have been gone for some time. San Diego is not the only metro area that is suffering in this environment. Best, Don Bauder

You're right of course; thank goodness for the Reader (among others). Still, big-pocketbook publishers are able to do major projects that are sadly rare these days.

Not that the Copleys enjoyed rocking the boat even when they were in their heyday.

Don Sevrens joined the San Diego Union in 1967, as I recall. So he was around roughly 44 years. Best, Don Bauder

Forty-four years! Why, he was a fossil and long overdue for the pasture. There's scarcely anyone left on the editorial page staff. The page will soon look like the editorial page of the Elko (Nevada) Independent.

Wait a minute! I was with the U-T 30 years when I retired in 2003. I have been with the Reader for more than 8 years. I was with Business Week 9 years and in advertising/PR for 4 years. (Have you seen the TV program Mad Men? It's about scoundrels who were in advertising in 1960. I started in advertising that year but didn't qualify as a scoundrel -- at least in my opinion. Plus I was in Chicago and the randy Mad Men were on Madison Ave. in New York.) In any case, that adds up to 51 years that I have been in the media business, 47 of of them in financial/business journalism. I do know that a lot of people consider me a fossil, but.... Best, Don Bauder

I'm younger than you, and people consider ME a fossil. I graduated college, class of '67. If I'd been able to start a career right away and stay in it until now, I'd have those 44 years in. Unfortunately, military service intervened, then graduate school, then a business career of about two decades, then a career change, then . . . All I can say is that it has been "interesting."

Signed: Just another fossil

I had already finished active duty military (six months) and graduate school (just a Master's) when I started working in 1960. I am a fossil. You're just a kid. Best, Don Bauder

The internal politics under the old regime/ownership were capricious. Favoritism triumphed; productivity meant very little. Once the layoffs and buyouts began, the situation was unbearable, I am told. (I had left in 2003, before the head-chopping began.) Today, there are several factors keeping employees extremely jittery: 1. Owner Platinum Equity buys assets to sell them; it has a 3 to 5 year holding period so it may be looking to jettison the paper if it can find a buyer -- which will be difficult; 2. If, instead, Platinum decides to expand in the newspaper business by, say, combining with other Southern California papers, there is also a threat of a personnel pogrom; 3. Platinum has cut payroll to the bone in many departments and employees are working too hard for too little pay; 4. The ink and paper side of the business remains fragile everywhere, and online products are not making adequate money, if any. There are other reasons for nervousness, too. Best, Don Bauder

I do think newspapers in Europe and other countries are doing better than those in the U.S., although I am not sure they are "thriving." I see a lot of theories thrown around about this seeming enigma. I don't have an answer and I am not sure anyone else has a cogent one. Best, Don Bauder

Yes, newspapers as such (the ink and paper variety) have only a generation or two to go, but news will always be around in some form. Serious news coverage is moving from the media behemoths to the online operations, which do a much better job of two-way communications or participative journalism. However, the big worry is that so many younger people aren't interested in cerebral questions (or cerebral art). Now that is a REAL problem. Best, Don Bauder

C'mon, Twister, keep trying. We need you. Best, Don Bauder

I hate to hear your complaints about our system but I am not the one to speak with: I'm a Luddite. Best, Don Bauder