First off I think your concept already exists in a variety of forms on-line. I don't think your collective brings anything new to the party.

Second I don't believe the print newspaper world has any leverage at this point. Your content has already escaped your control and been co-opted and that bell will not be un-rung. You've already given your equity away.

I subscribe to the print editions of the Los Angeles Times, the Daily Breeze and the Wall Street Journal and read all three to start each day. The decline of the product I receive is evident when compared with the product I received in the past from the same producers for less money.

Of the three papers the Daily Breeze has fallen the most from its past standards. It is clearly no longer my local South Bay paper but instead a stripped down hybrid of the L.A. Daily News and the Daily Breeze.

The amount of content from AP has risen while the amount of local coverage has contracted - along with the length and depth of the articles. The AP stuff is DOA the second you print it and is stale compared to what I can get on-line with a click. Plus, the AP standards themselves have declined with the lack of wire service competition and budget cuts in their own operation. The AP content is just not high level journalism or writing anymore.

Your Business half-page is now a sad joke. Your publishers should be embarrassed by what they have shrunk this section to become and ashamed by how truly worthless and irrelevant it now is to the majority of readers.

Instead of dreaming of how you can form some mega-giant of a newspapers' collective site I believe you should switch your perspective from telescope to microscope.

The one thing the Breeze can do better than the web is cover the local scene with expertise, experience and insider's insight.

You mentioned "hyper local" and I think you should focus that way at the Breeze end. You should be maximizing your local advantage of narrow-casting and forget your dreams of broadcasting.

The local business news is just waiting to be better mined and spotlighted with intensity lacking today.
Coverage of neighborhood associations and localized issues should be doubled and tripled.

In depth local political coverage should replace the shallow, single voice, surface-only coverage we're now getting. I'd also like to see state and county issues covered from a local perspective.

Restaurant and new business reviews should be offered in abundance. I'd include coverage of new medical facilities and new doctors setting up shop in our area. And I'm not talking about the lame advertorials that appear with increasing regularity in the Breeze. I'm talking about coverage by real reporters.

Finally, I'd make your opinion page more meaningful by dumping the tired, old national syndicated columnists who rarely do more than offer their SOP. I'd add more diverse local columnists and offer more voices a shot at the Op Ed page. And I'd also use an editorial board of people to choose letters to the editor and write the editorials. The Breeze has had a single individual with a singular point of view doing that job for a long time. But the paper has never been very honest or transparent about that way of doing business.

Instead of deciding that you can no longer write, print and deliver a hardcopy newspaper that provides enough value and benefit that customers will pay for it and advertisers will pay to be in it, why not commit to a higher standard of excellence and aim higher?

Why not use the web to allow us to go even further in-depth on the articles in each day's paper with additional photos, content and links to other resources?

Instead the Breeze offers a half-hearted attempt with a handful of blogs that do not offer enough substance or unique content.

Your own blog is a nice idea but doesn't really offer enough reporting or depth to qualify as added value. I think you're missing an opportunity by usually providing only a minimalist extra beyond what you write for the paper.

The two to three broad based paragraphs you post on most topics make me as a reader think that's all you have to say on these subjects and they don't provide enough insight to make me want to come back for more.

When you did go into more detail and depth it was on this subject of your proposal for reinventing the newspaper world and its relationship with the internet. Interesting to respond to, but not of any real value in relationship to the world of South Bay business.

That's my two cents. Thanks for taking the time to read it.