SNIP

>The sole objective of any corporate media outlet today is maximized profit. When it was bought by ??? the Los Angeles Times had a steady year-to-year profit of 20%. The buyers saw big potential for cost savings and started doing so. 4 years later the paper is but a shadow of its former self and the new ownership has pressed to make it a strictly local paper to cut even more. They see no problem in suggesting that their readers should buy 2-3 newspapers daily - one for national/world news, one for financial news and the L.A. Times for local news. Imagine!!!
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I strongly disagree with the first sentence. The concept of reporting the news as a public service is far from dead, even if it has been dealt a few body blows.

We are in agreement that the acquisition of the L.A. Times by Tribune Companies, whose flagship is the Chicago Tribune (or the Chicago Cubs, take your pick), has been a disaster. The Times was one of our handful of best papers. I would still take it over most of what is out there but it isn't the paper it used to be. They will be teaching this acquisition in business schools as a case study in what can go wrong, if they aren't already.