Hot Potato

It's old news by now, McClatchy bought current Statesman owner Knight Ridder, but it means that I am now working for my fifth company in less than three years out of college. I'm unintentionally getting quite a tour of the American newspaper biz.

It was probably the best outcome we could have hoped for (although the same cannot be said for reporters at the bigger, less profitable papers, like San Jose, that will again be sold) as McClatchy has a novel approach to the news business: profits through good journalism.

The real point, though, is that the group of young reporters that hang out here has a wildly undeserved reputation for boozing (Josh, Bones, Sack, Chad, I miss you) and has thus been named The Brat Pack, which I am now changing to the McClatch-key kids. Maybe the shake-up will get the these guys off their ass and to the bars.