Letters From the Issue of Thursday, June 21, 2007

Witness the recent troubles of Democratic Representative Ed Pastor. The Republic opted to run a story culled from the Associated Press rather than use one of its own reporters. It's a shame, but typical of Gannett's tight-fisted ways. Is the dumbing-down of the Arizona Republic necessary in the age of the Internet? Unfortunately, the Internet has nothing to do with it. This has been Gannett's M.O. for years. That has worked for it (and made the corporation money) time and time again in every media company it has ever purchased. What's different now is that whatever Gannett tries, it doesn't seem to stem the tide of their falling stock price. In short, what has worked in the past for Gannett isn't working very well for it now.

Upper management is flailing and in a panic. A handful of years ago, Gannett sold off some of its non-media holdings, explaining that it wanted to get back to being a "newspaper" business again. Too bad it wasn't earnest about this. It's all about the money with Gannett, not basic, hard-hitting journalism.
Name withheld by requestFish have brothers?: I just read Sarah Fenske's tome-length article (what a drag), which could have been written in three paragraphs: 1) Newspapers across the country are hurting; 2) the Republic, now owned by Gannett, is one of those papers; 3) the Republic has expanded to online reporting and other uses of the Internet and is experiencing some difficulties in doing so.

In its sorry excuse for "investigative reporting," New Timesleft out the rest of the cover photo: the dead fish's brother wrapped in New Times.
Marilynn Wennerstrom, Mesa