Too much fluff | The Salt Lake Tribune

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

I agreed with much of the "Journalism war being lost to the bad guys" commentary (Opinion, Oct 13). But it seems a little late to the party.

If I understand correctly, local and fluffy stories increase readership (corporatespeak for profit), and then when readership declines it surely means the newspaper just isn't running enough fluff and local articles so the remedy is to increase that content even more. And then when profits still continue to decline, the remedy is somehow to go all local and fluffy all the time?

The Salt Lake Tribune as a source for news has been declining for a while but who could have ever imagined the newspaper would fall so far as to offer a disgruntled guy's foray into online dating as being compelling, in-depth, front-page news.

Although narcissistic locals who never tire of reading about themselves will no doubt be thrilled with the all-Utah-all-the-time "not news" news, the foreseeable if not intended consequences of dumbing down the newspaper will surely come back to bite us all in the butt.

Ross McCollin

South Salt Lake