I've always enjoyed Susan Campbell's feistiness. Her bravery in spotlighting bigotry and hypocrisy, and then having to suffer the slings and arrows of bigots and hypocrites. She has always done it with wit and grace. She is a voice of conscience at a newspaper that might otherwise ignore the poor, the downtrodden, the tireless, faceless volunteers, and the truly saintly.
Today's might be the bravest column Susan Campbell (and her editor), have chosen to write and print. Today, she serves a plate of steaming plate of "you don't know jack-shit about running a paper" to her corporate bosses. If this column was run with the publisher's knowledge, then god bless him. If not, I suspect Susan is going to get something more than a cranky email. But I'm sure she can handle it.
She writes much more eloquently and entertainingly than I about the downfalls of absentee ownership of a local paper. And she suggests that the editors and writers buy the OCPNIA (oldest continually published newspaper in America), and publish it themselves.
I've got a better suggestion. Leave the printing presses to the Trib. Start a new Connecticut paper that's entirely web-based. Make sure the weather, the obits and the sports scores are easy to find. Have an up-to-date traffic link. And by god, hire some great writers with the money that you'll save on ink and paper.
Go get 'em Susan.
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