In announcing the sale of its Pennsylvania newspapers to Alden Global Capital Thursday, the Lynett family — which had owned the papers for 128 years — gave this heartbreaking statement:
“Most family newspaper sale announcements bear some variation of stock language regarding the new owner’s ability to ‘assume the families’ stewardship,’ ‘continue to provide strong local reporting,’ and ‘maintain the legacy’ of the selling family. Sadly, we feel that none of that will be true in our case.” ...
We all love to complain about how Google and Facebook are killing local news. And they certainly have contributed to the problems. But what we have in Pennsylvania is cannibalism — one part of the local news industry eating another.
Until we face up to this problem, we’re not going save local news — and frankly won’t have much moral claim to do so.
