Peter Preston in The Observer today quotes Dave Krieger, sports columnist, on what it felt like when his paper, the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Colorado, closed down.
"The suits come in and cry their crocodile tears then whizz home to continue collecting seven-figure salaries, pleased to have rid their shareholders of the albatross that was a helluva paper. Scripps is in the best financial shape of any newspaper company in America, save for the Washington Post, but it turns tail because it's as committed to public service journalism as teenagers are to this spring's fashions... Gannett taught everyone how to make profit margins that were out of sight. But now that it's a struggle, is there anybody left with the heart of a journalist? We need publishers with vision and conviction and courage - and it's beginning to look like all we have are profiteers born on third base."
I think Krieger's quote reflects just how many journalists over here feel about their newspaper publishers.
His quote was taken from the Columbia Journalism Review which got Rocky Mountain News staff to give their thoughts on the death of their newspaper.
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