As if on cue, just as the Inquirer cuts itself a fat piece of birthday cake, the Bulletin takes itself off of life support. After a five-year run, the Bulletin, self-termed "Philadelphia's Family Newspaper," is shutting down. Boasting a conservative bent in a staggeringly Democratic town, the paper always faced uphill odds, so its demise is not a surprise. While I was never a fan of the Bulletin's politics, I had hoped that the competition might spur the Inky and Daily News--which, you'll recall, are owned by, like, the same company--to better performances. But, like so many conservative media outlets, it wore its politics on its sleeve, filling not merely its opinion pages but also its news hole with such family-values nonsense that it never gained credibility. And so Philadelphia again has become, to its detriment, a one-company journalism town. Maybe one of these days I'll start that online daily I've been dreaming of for a while now. Goodness knows the city could use it. Anybody have some spare capital they're looking to get rid of? | PRS
