Friday, December 02, 2005

Egads! The Sun is in Trouble!

No, not the great golden orb which lights our days and, cruelly, abandons us each night. The Baltimore Sun is getting the bitch slap from corporate headquarters. Chicago's Tribune Company owns the Baltimore Sun and they plan to strip it of 75 local reporters even though it's turning great profits.

A newspaper is far more than simply a cooperate franchise, it's part of a cities history, its landscape. It is an important community service.

Baltimore has a proud news paper history spanning over two centuries. The Sun itself has been printing in Baltimore since eighteen-thirty-seven. It's given us H.L. Menken (try to hide the chubby, Jay) and fifteen Pulitzer prize winners and, for a medium sized city paper, it's really played above its head.

Of course, if you simply wanted a National paper, the Washington Post is a clear choice. While it's exciting to read world news written by Baltimore based reporters. The strength of a paper like The Sun is its connection to the community it serves. What makes The Sun relevant is the window and watchdog it provides on the world right out the window. Cutting seventy-five reporters will gut this capacity.

If you are like me, the recent format change was bad enough. Dumbing down the presentation and giving it that USAToday McNews feel sucked. A step like this, turning The Sun into essentially a small Maryland section of the Chicago Tribune is a slap in the face of proud Baltimore.

If you feel like I do let them know. Sign this petition and tell the Tribune Company that if they take the service you've come to expect and rely on, you'll take away the one thing they want, your subscription and circulation number.

S.O.L.