One Angry Reader...
Maybe there's hope yet. A new story in the Raleigh (NC) News & Observer reports on a local man who's suing the paper for cutting staff and taking out sections:
Keith Hempstead, a Durham lawyer, filed the suit last month in Wake Superior Court. He says he renewed his subscription in May just before the paper announced on June 16 the layoffs of 70 staff members and cuts in news pages.
The paper, he says, is now not worth what he signed up for and therefore the cuts breached the paper's contract with him...
..."I hate to see what companies that run newspapers are doing to the product," Hempstead said. "The idea that taking the most important product and reducing the amount of news and getting rid of staff to me seems pointless to how you should run a newspaper business."
Hempstead said he wants to keep the paper from reducing news coverage and wants the newspaper industry to revisit its business model. His suit asks for an unspecified amount of damages and attorney's fees.
News & Observer, I'm happy to help. (See consulting contest below.)
