Par's back ... in the news ... and now he has quit. (EDITED for news)

Par Ridder, appealing to go back to the Star Tribune.And the Star Tribune spending more money to back him.

 

Re: Par's back ... in the news

Why would this daddy's boy want to be somewhere where he's sooooooo not wanted?

Guess the staff's 200-2 vote calling for his resignation means nothing to this guy or the private-equity owners.

Maybe he can't stand the idea of being on the outside, looking in, when the union contract comes up for negotiation in '08. Par must have been looking forward to that, knives sharpened.

 

Re: Par's back ... in the news

Well, another day, another 180. Today's news is that Par has quit the Strib.

 

Poor Par. How will he afford those great haircuts?

 

Par for the course, if you ask me. The Ridders have done enough for the demise of newspapers in this land. I hope they go into widgets now.

Somebody warn the widget people.

 

Bitch of it is, someone out there is going to hire sub-Par because he's been in the business.... hell, even Carole Leigh found a new home...

 

Just a hunch, but remember that you read it here first: The quick and hushed-up settlement between Lean Dean (St. Paul) and the private equity firm that owns the Minneapolis newspaper suggests to me that Singleton soon might be the owner of both (then merged into one) Twin Cities dailies. These two parties were at each other's throat just a few months ago, and now is all lovey-dovey:

http://www.startribune.com/business/12260661.html

"This was not a happy time for either newspaper," said Dean Singleton, vice chairman and chief executive officer of MediaNews Group, owner of the Pioneer Press. "The court awarded us what we asked the court to award us. The folks at Avista are good people. They found themselves in an awkward position over all of this and it was time to move on. We move on with no ill will, nothing but respect for Avista, and we both need to concentrate on navigating the change that the newspaper business has found itself in."

 

How about cleaning the wingnuts out of the op-ed page?

 

No way... MSP is a two-newspaper town... St. Paul won't deal with the Strib; Minneapolis won't read the PiPress

 

Same type of thing has been said about other two-paper markets. But both papers are losing readers, profits or both. If the only option is one merged (and more economically healthy) newspaper, what are the diehards going to do? Probably gripe as they subscribe to it.

At the very least, you got to figure on a JOA to cut costs.

 

If they MSP was one city, I'd be inclined to agree. But they are two separate cities with two distinct personalities...

 

Maybe a JOA, but no new JOAs have been approved since Denver in 2001, and the last one before that was York (Pa.) in 1990. Remember, you need to jump through Justice to get that approved.