The paper laid off 31 more people in the newsroom, cutting the staff to approximately half the size of the 2000 peak, just before the first Internet bubble burst. So many good people are gone, and many remain. But the ones who are left can’t sustain the same excellent journalism that we once took so much pride in delivering — and people around Silicon Valley know it.
A sad day, but here’s the reality: There are most likely sadder days to come for this once-ambitious organization.
on Jul 3rd, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Not to worry– there’s a bright future for journalism!
Yes, forgive me for that. But it’s eerily parallel to other industries (such as professional football) where the profession is delivering more excitement for the fans, but at the expense of the actual players.
Speaking of new journalism, the link to the East Bay Express blog is interesting — five comments, four of them anonymous. And one of them makes claims that this was avoidable. It appears to have been quickly refuted, but still, it would have been nice for someone to get some more inside scoops on the changes at the Merc.
on Jul 4th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
The news business does a generally lousy job of covering itself. This is where bloggers could do a major service (and in some cases do exactly that).