http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003831638
Copley Seeks to Unload Flagship ‘San Diego Union-Tribune’
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003831647
Huge Volume As Journal Register Shares Hit 3 Cents
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20080725-0014-7n25utnews.html
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Bill Kovach, chairman of the Committee of Concerned Journalists in Washington, D.C., said loss of family ownership often brings a shift from public service to profit.
“This is one of the more disturbing trends of the present time because the strength of American newspapers in the 20th century was the connection between the ownership and the community,” he said.
Newspapers have a higher mission than maximizing the bottom line, Kovach said.
“What a good newspaper does is provide a steady monitor to the political, social and economic behavior of a community,” Kovach said. “By being that monitor, it allows the public to make decisions every day about whether or not the community is functioning in a way they hope it will.
“There is no other institution that does that.”