Maryland Business

By: jackie.sauter

After Monday’s news that the Tribune Co. filed for bankruptcy, what will happen to The Baltimore Sun? It seems the two have not had the best of relationships.

Since Tribune bought The Sun in 2000, the newspaper’s union-represented work force has decreased by 50 percent, according to the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild. That includes more than 100 jobs cut this year at the paper.

The Tribune has steadily gone into debt and The Sun has lost subscription and advertising revenue. Per a mandate by the Tribune, the paper folded its standalone Maryland and Business sections this summer.

Theodore G. Venetoulis, a publisher who has put together a group interested in buying The Sun and returning it to local ownership, has not changed his stance on buying the paper through all the negative news this year.

Do you think the paper should be returned to local ownership? How important is the tradition of “the Sun paper” to you? Does it need saving?

LIZ FARMER, Business Writer