Great move. I'm tired of telling my freshman micro students to put down the damn paper and take notes.

Sorry to hear that. Last month I went to the 100th anniversary of "The Post," the Ohio University college newspaper where I used to work/study in the '70s. It's struggling financially too, but still going strong.

Jack:

I always appreciate your insight and criticism. Most of the time, anyway. There’s a couple of things here I wanted to respond to.

First, you have this narrative about me being an apologist for urban renewal. It’s a nice story. But if you find someone who has written more often and in more depth about urban renewal in the last several years, please let me know. I’m not suggesting everything I wrote was perfect, but I worked my tail off every day for years to get to the bottom of the story.

Regarding the Emerald, this really isn’t about cost saving. It’s about building a better model for college media. Truly. Again, I know that messes with your story line. This year will be our best financially since 2000. And next year, this change is actually increasing our expenses. The printing costs are flat because our weekly page count will be the same. We will save some money on distribution but we are more than making up for that with the hiring of a mobile/web programmer and increased marketing. We’re really trying to respond to the market and do a better job serving our community and training our students. That’s all.

Thanks for your continued interest. All the best,

Ryan Frank

Ryan, you never reported the story of "urban renewal," because you never got it. Now you have become the "publisher" of a student newspaper, which you are dismantling. You can put a shiny face on it, just as you did the shenanigans of the PDC here in Portland, and you probably actually believe what you're saying. I wish you luck.

Jack:

Thanks for the thoughtful discussion.

Ryan

Is that sarcasm, Ryan? Seriously -- I can't tell. You never have expressed yourself well with the written word.