This little item last week about the Star-Telegram and the News combining delivery in certain areas got me to thinking. Why stop at delivery? The S-T has been one of the best run, most profitable newspapers in America. But the McClatchy owners, in their bean-counting measures, are treating it like an impoverished second cousin. If the News bought the S-T they would own the fourth-largest metro area in America (Belo already owns the Denton Chronicle). Fort Worth is booming. A combined operation would save tons of money. And it would enable Belo to claim a near-monopoly on-line and in print. (Except for — hello! — us, of course.)
Okay, I’m just daydreaming here. It’s what a publisher does when he has 20 minutes to kill before the next meeting. But, dangit, if I don’t think it makes perfect sense.
