There are a few folks who constantly criticize the Daily Sun for its content. Agree with Handie that it does not print negative stories about TV, but that's just good business. I've noticed in the last couple years, there have been a goodly number of stories about crime, especially about robberies/burglaries. Possibly the paper is getting more daring, but I expect that this was a business decision to give us readers more of what we needed, wanted, and clamored to get. But I doubt if we're going to see any three part expose's of the Morse family or editorials criticizing Crossman. The developer owns the newspaper (in fact, if not directly) and it is used as a marketing and service tool for TV. And if one wants to find negative newspaper stories about TV or Morse, read the Leesburg, Ocala, Sumter Co, or Orlando papers and you'll find them.

Some people complain about the conservative slant of the paper. Oh yeah, it is conservative. Even I find some of the columnists a bit hard to swallow at times. But nobody gives me the paper and forces me to read it. I had to subscribe and pay for it. And when I pick up my mail, I see for sale on Villages property the USA Today and The Orlando Sentinel, two quite liberal papers. And if you choose, you can get the Slantenal thrown on your driveway every morning --- mine comes a little after the Sun, about 4:30 AM. And of course, you can get all the other local papers at Circle K and a lot of other places.

As to content, I don't know about the rest of you, but I've been favorably impressed with the paper's national and international coverage since they've expanded Section A. It's got most if not all the stories that are carried in the Sentinel or St. Pete's Times.

As to why so many papers are closing, there are multiple reasons. I do agree that many have lost readership due to their editorial policy and what many perceive as slanted news. But most of those readers would have gone elsewhere, e.g. Washington Post and Times. However, overall newspaper readership has dropped precipitously. Possibly some of that can be explained by the Net, but I don't buy that. I think more its just that newspaper readers are dying. We're really the last generation that grew up reading the paper with breakfast, as we're the last who came home and watched Walter and Chet & Dave on the networks. Too many of our younger fellow citizens get their news from Colbert and Stewart and the Letterman/Leno monologues. These people don't read newspapers on the Web. If anything, the more intelligent ones might read the Onion or Uncle Dave.

(Kind of an aside -- don't know where the list of newspapers that have ceased publication came from or how accurate it is for other cities, but the Kansas City Star is very much alive. Well at least they are still printing their liberal slant and delivering daily.)

If this sounds a bit pessimistic, well, yeah, I guess it is. I wish I were wrong.



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