I guess I'm an old guy and can't stop myself from mumbling about the good old days. When I started at the Tribune in September 1969 the paper (the Tribune; never mind the Star) had bureaus in Washington; London; Saigon; Madison, Wis., and a reporter/columnist, George grim, "whose beat was the world." My first experience handling his copy was a long piece of all-caps copy filed by teletype from South America. There wasn't a St. Paul bureau occupying rented space, though, as far as I can recall. We did have reporters and photographers covering St. Paul, of course. I think it was publisher Roger Parkinson and editor Joel Kramer's idea in the mid-1980s (am I right, Joel?) to tailor separate west and east metro B sections, open a St. Paul bureau and position the Star Tribune as the Newspaper of the Twin Cities in order to pursue St. Paul circulation more aggressively. That was years after Trygve Ager "called in retired" from Eau Claire after going on vacation. Tryg had been the Wisconsin bureau chief; he covered the grisly Ed Gein story in 1957, and for years filed Wisconsin stories from Eau Claire in accordance with John Cowles Sr.'s view that the Tribune's coverage area was the Ninth Federal Reserve District. Tryg settled his family in Eau Claire, but eventually John Senior's view was overshadowed, the Wisconsin bureau was moved to Madison, and Tryg -- refusing to move south -- was transferred to the copy desk on Portland Avenue, where he sat across from me after I arrived. (Tryg stayed at the Francis Drake Hotel, not yet a homeless shelter, during the week and took the Greyhound home on weekends.)

All this by way of reflection on the value and prestige, ad shifting landscape, of bureaus. No real point here.

P.S. -- $7,500 a month! They can honor their buyout commitments to a number of coerced retirees for that!