Wow, if they lose any more copy editors, that paper is going to be a mess of jibberish! The errors already are embarassing!

What would Obama say? Maybe shame on all of you. The Pressmen, the vice presidents, the reporters you all could do with a little less so another seven wouldn't have this shame heaped upon their shoulders and their families laps. At this rate it will never end another seven and then seven more and pretty soon the place has been overthinned.

Ok a couple comments

Your hyper focus on the strib newsroom is really irritating. The newsroom is only one part of an organization that makes it possible for the newspaper to support the journalism it provides this community.

Please take a step back and recognize that if you only cover the pain the newsroom is feeling, you are at the same time not covering the pain other parts of the business are also feeling. At the end of the day, that means people who are impacted negatively by this economy.

I know some of those people and it's insulting to read your posts and know that you are overlooking 2/3 of the organization.

Second comment is along the lines of doctor heal thyself. Word on the street is that Minnpost is also suffering financial setbacks. On one hand you're hiring new staff and on the other hand you're laying off staff.

How about seeing a little self reflective blogging on the pains this fine startup is feeling.

And lastly. If news traditionally is bad news and we're now in a situation where bad news has become chronically common place. Why not start focusing on good news? Frankly the media hasn't helped the common man be anything but scared shitless. When the common man is freaked out by the media's coverage, then they super freak. So tone down the rhetoric and unbalanced coverage or start going out of your way to remind people that the earth will indeed continue to spin and we will move out of this recession.

I think that's enough for one post.

Some very good thoughts Jack. My colleagues were part of the other 2/3s and we were dumped but at least with decent severance. And David to help you out read the latest NY Review of Books what happens when google owns the entire library of the world and the original owners have sold the company?

Jack Johnson--

The whole tone of your diatribe is that you are saying "jump!" and expecting Brauer to say "how high?" If you're that irritated by what he covers, save yourself the embolism and don't read him. And if you think the public is freaking out, because of what he writes, guess what? We all have ample cause to freak out. If you think this economic thing is just a blip on the radar, solved in 6 months by Saint Obama, you're in for a rude awakening.

Tell me, have you read anything from anybody that indicates to you that things are going to get better in the next 6-9 months? Or is the preponderance of the best available evidence pointing toward a massive battening down of the economy for most of this year? I'm sorry if it troubles you, but instead of lambasting a journalist for accurately reporting the situation and pleading for some happy talk to divert your worries, why not concentrate on ensuring that the root causes of this implosion aren't repeated, and that the current "fixes" actually fix something?

Meanwhile, while criticizing Brauer for too much negativity on the one hand, you're criticizing him for not reporting the pain experienced by twice as many other people working for the Strib on the other hand. While I am sympathetic to your frustration that the hardship of friends and colleagues of yours in non-newsroom capacities is being relatively ignored, do I really have to remind you of the familiarity/celebrity aspect of media reporting? There is a "media" beat instead of a "sales" beat or a "construction" beat or a "medical" beat done in this quick-hit mixture of gossip and reportage because we become more intimate with the folks who provide us with our news, sports, weather and photography. The pressman and the printers and the sales force are ultimately as important to the operation of the paper as the reporters and editors, but we don't have that same visceral connection. If you are friends or a former co-worker of these people, of course you want to see their strife acknowledged equally. But the general public is more interested in the plight of the newsroom folks than they are the non-newsroom folks. And that's not Brauer's fault.

I've read from fairly credible sources that the google founders have more net worth than the entire u.s. newspapers combined. Does that imperile a free press? The anti big goverment types say they are always worried about too much power concentrated in too few hands at least governemnt has checks and balances. As we have found out an unregulated market is brutish.

Another idea worth discussing is Electronic Mass Information Construct even financially possible? Or will all evolve to e. personal info constructs?