Dear Editor: I almost laughed myself silly when I read "New Money Rediscovers Old Media" (May 2007). Not once did the article mention
that Mark Cuban has never run a successful business—they all lose money. The
Dallas Mavericks lose money, and goodness knows HDNet loses money.
You put someone on your cover who consistently loses money, but
the name of your magazine is Worth. The joke is on the readers.
You should have listed the above facts, because readers have a
right to fully understand who is giving them advice—not a PR piece that is so
positive and worshiping of its subject that it makes this reader (and I am sure
others as well) ready to cancel their subscription. Cindy Walker, Dallas
Dear Editor: Mark Cuban has it right. He shows the basic understanding that
newspapers are best when owned by people—and not by publicly traded
corporations. Cuban knows that the notion of mandatory growth does not apply to
every business venture.
The Los Angeles
Times thrived under the Chandler family and now it
falters, made to endure seemingly endless budget cuts by a bean-counting board.
Newspapers were not meant to be run by bean counters—nor by Wall Street.
When the Chandlers owned the paper, it made enough money to have
one of the top five foreign-coverage operations in the world. The newspaper won
prizes for its public service reporting. It didn’t have to satisfy stockholders;
it had to satisfy the community it served and the high standards of its owners.
And this plague is nationwide—the Poynters are gone in St.
Petersburg, Fla., the Grahams are gone in Washington, D.C., the McClatchys were
immensely successful with just three papers in California’s Central Valley, but
now spread beyond their basic capabilities to satisfy the corporate demand for
"growth." That growth demand is unnecessary when a newspaper makes enough money
for one family.
My grandmother, who published two newspapers in Indiana, once
said, "You can always tell a town by its newspaper." Unfortunately, publicly
owned newspapers now put the lie to that statement. People like Mr. Cuban, who
want to truly serve their community and still make money, can make it right
again. I hope. Peter Toll, West Linn, Ore.
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