Death by 500 Cuts

Implications: Amid falling ad revenues, is Sam Zell destroying the LA Times (and other Tribune papers) by cutting news pages, making newsroom decisions based on quantity not quality of reporting, facilitating the exits of his best staff and dumbing down his papers beyond recognition?

Analysis: The Washington Post's Harold Meyerson rips into Sam Zell today, calling him a "human wrecking ball" who may well destroy the L.A. Times. 

In Meyerson's view: "A paper that is both an axiom and an ornament of Los Angeles life, that helps set the political, business and artistic agenda for one of America's two great world metropolises, is being shrunk and, if Zell continues to get his way, dumbed down."

Yes, ad revenues are falling. And yes, it's true that no one reads all the articles. But a smaller paper, with less original reporting and a heavier reliance on wire service copy will only accelerate the trend of smart, affluent people to the internet for all their news.
 
Papers are in decline. And maybe the best any newspaper company can hope to do is delay the inevitable. But in the meantime, many readers still have a strong bond with their paper. They still recognize that the act of reading on newsprint (with the paper's editor as a guide) will lead them serendipitously to stories they might otherwise find nowhere else. And, I'm sure, they still occasionally read one rare article or column that, all by itself, reaffirms their need to renew their subscription.
 
As Meyerson spells out, one of the most troubling aspects in the Tribune announcement is that it was, in part, driven by an analysis of the volume of material created by each reporter (the New York Times earlier noted that this analysis signaled to Randy Michaels that some people were not pulling their weight and "would hardly be missed.") Thus, all future Woodward and Bernsteins who might think of applying to the Chicago Tribune or LA Times are put on notice that the importance of the story -- or the depth of the reporting -- no longer matters.

Or, as they used to say in that old British sitcom: "Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Width."