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Item: The Los Angeles Times makes a 20% annual profit and wins Pulitzers, but is considered in decline as a business. Instead of investing in delivering more to readers, Tribune plans to ignore the warnings of its last two publishers and cut 10% of the staff while offering less content (and despoiling the sports section with ugly ads.) Yeah, that will make more of us want to read the paper.
Item: The Chicago Cubs pack in the crowds at Wrigley Field win or lose — usually lose. So Tribune throws a huge contract at outfielder Alfonso Soriano, and now has invested $200 million in two players this month alone.
"Let's see," writes David Davis at SoCal Sports Observed. "Baseball or journalism? Well, at least we know the answer to that question." Meanwhile, the Dodgers sign Nomar Garciaparra to a two-year-deal and are running out of options to replace J.D. Drew, let alone improve on him — and the Angels commit to four years on a middle reliever, Justin Speier.