'Seattle Times' to MediaNews: 'Go Local'

The Seattle Times, long known for its support of locally owned newspapers and boasts that it is the only one in Seattle, took a shot at MediaNews Group today in an editorial that urged the financially-troubled company to sell off its papers to local folks. "That Bank of America and other lenders are taking an 88 percent stake in The Denver Post, The Salt Lake Tribune, the San Jose Mercury News and dozens of other U.S. newspapers is not welcome," the editorial began, noting MediaNews Group's recent pre-packaged bankruptcy filing for its holding company. "Banks do not belong in the newspaper industry and should find a quick and honorable way out of it.

"The nature, the role and the mentality of newspapers are too different from banking. Newspapers report on the banks; they should not be owned by them. Newspapers should be independent. That is a difficult charge at the moment, but the difficulty of it makes it no less necessary." --Joe Strupp