Both OlyOst and Ken have pretty good thoughts on the Olympian new "we're cutting back" story from this morning.

Ken specifically paints what we'd lose in Olympia if the Olympian was gone:

We depend on The Olympian for our local news.  We read the paper for its obituaries, for its birth announcements and for its list of those filing for divorce.  We read about those who have been picked up by the law for various offenses and we read about how they came out in court.  The Olympian is our public bulletin board.

Former Olympian reporter Chris Fruitrich says it even better in the comments of the Olympians' own story:

And I fear for a nation so willing to let its only watchdog be euthanized.

Who is going to tell people when their rights are in danger of being eroded?

Will anyone take their own time to keep track of what the city governments are doing? The police? The crooks?

Who sounds the warning when big business shoulders the local entrepreneurs aside?

And what about those things that touch our daily lives:
Who will announce the births, deaths and marriages in the community?

Who will run the box scores for Tumwater, North Thurston or Capital?

How will word of road closures or temporary water problems get out?

Fewer and fewer people care a whit about what happens to the news business. But more and more will become part of the howling mob wondering what happened as their personal convenience is invaded.

Ken Balsley, who I'm pretty sure used to write for the Lacey weekly newspaper when there was a weekly Lacey newspaper, reflects on the recent happenings at the Olympian:

Layoffs at The Olympian means that effective control of the local newspaper has been transfered to Tacoma and will operate out of the The (Tacoma) News Tribune offices.

Not only have 17 Olympian staffers been layed off but several others have been transfered to Tacoma where they will operate out of that sister publication.  Those transfered from Olympia to Tacoma include the Advertising Manager and the Classified Advertising Manager, thus moving those operations out of town.

...

Since its acqusition of those newspapers in April 06, the company has been consolidating its operations.  A significant piece of the action is controlled by The (Tacoma) News Tribune which staffers at The Olympian refer to as “the mother ship."

Read the entire post, its pretty good.

Since Ken doesn't enable comments of at his blog, I'll leave them open here. 

Today the Olympian has a poll marking 5 years since we invaded Iraq - please vote.

Dear OlyBlog,

I am a frequent lurker and newly registered member. While there is much to discuss and consider around the events at TESC the night of the 14th, I'm here with some questions about the Olympian and general media coverage.

The Olympian seems to be test driving an open publishing tool, NewsGarden, where anyone can come on by and map local new stories. I added a couple of my city hall posts from Olyblog and they seemed to stick.

Its worth a try to go over there yourself and add something from Olyblog, or somewhere else.