Dear FRONTLINE,

Being a long-time L.A. Times reader, I am only sorry I cannot afford to buy the every-day paper, but am glad I can afford 4 out of 7 week-day papers. My sister is a 7-day subscriber and saves the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday papers for me, so in fact I do read the L.A. Times 7 days per week.

As a result, I get 90% of my news from the L.A. Times. I read all of Section A and B, Calendar and Sport section first, then the editorials, mail, obits, etc next. I feel well informed about what's happening locally, as well as nationally. I also do the Jumbles and crossword puzzle, so not only is the paper informative, it is also entertaining. I always look forward to the Sunday paper because there is so much to read!

Don't get the impression I don't have a full life beyond the paper. I do. I have a very busy daily schedule outside my home and believe the reason I have such diverse activities is because I am well-informed and can share that information with others. I rarely watch TV during the day and only listen to radio when in the car.

So, as you can see, the L.A. Times will continue to be my daily news outlet. I hope it reverts to local ownership so this bickering between Chicago and L.A. will stop.

Keep up this in-depth reporting.

A continuing loyal L.A. Times reader.

I think Mr. Broad and/or the Chandlers should buy the L.A. Times so this bickering from Chicago can end.

bert Manos
Hawthorne, CA

Dear FRONTLINE,

As a long-tme employee of the Los Angeles Times and a long-time reader ,your segment on the Times was poignent. I was there in the "golden years" of the only Chandler who cared - Otis- and indeed I did feel it was a public service to work there.

Jeanne Karpenko
Glendale,, CA

Dear FRONTLINE,

9 years ago I came from Germany to the US and it occurred to me very quickly that it wouldn't be very easy to stay up to date on international news. Watching news on TV was very disappointing as the international section was over in just a few minutes and the rest was national news...forget the local news...I had no interest at all in how many turkeys the neighbors had in their backyard and at what intersection it just had rained (being in California). I'm mostly reading German news magazines and watching their news shows on the internet. And the reason is not that it is in my first language and therefore easier to understand. They are simply more diverse and more in-depth when it comes to international news. The only news/documentary shows I like to watch here are 60 minutes (and I'm not 55 yet) and Frontline. Especially the US, having so many interests abroad, should step up their international news coverage a notch.

Glendale, CA

Dear FRONTLINE,

I viewed News Wars 2/27/07 on KCET (Los Angeles). The program was very disturbing, especially the notion of hyperlocalism. If the LA Times were to go to that I would certainly cancel my subscription. I have loves the in-depth reporting of the recent years and the international character of the Times. I hate to think that the Times readers would sink to local news alone.

Sad to say, none of my (5) grown chikdren subscribe to the Times. They claim that the internet (headlines) meet their needs. Was colloge wasted?

Thomas Roe
Los Angeles, CA

Dear FRONTLINE,

Wow! So well presented and wonderfully edited. This IS the definition of REAL news. I depend on Frontline and PBS for helping me find what I need to know.

How will we pay for the news? I'll help pay for the news. I'm increasing my contribution. David Hiller was right. It's my money and I can choose what to do with it. I choose reality. I value my soul and the futures of my children and grandchildren. As a society, we better figure it out soon or as John Carroll said, "What will we know?". We all know the answer.

Thank you all for intelligent, pertinent conversations in their various forms. Sometimes, I want to watch and listen to get a broad introduction to an issue. I often need to read the interviews and information on the web to fully understand. Your TV shows and website provide opportunities for both with consideration for my lifestyle and schedule. We're connected for life. I can't wait till my 5 year grandchild needs to research reports. She already uses her link to PBS Kids, so she's just one step away from the NEWS. Please don't stop.

Nancy Padberg
Zigzag, Oregon

Dear FRONTLINE,

I missed the first 2 parts of the series, but was really interested in the third episode. The part about citizen-journalism reminded me of the Insider where Pacino as Bergman says to his wife "Lowell Bergman, 60 Minutes - take the last 2 words away and no one answers your calls." The power of the press is what enables them to get answers that an angry citizen cannot, and I'm not sure the web will ever develop that power.

I try to get my news from several sources, that way I can balance any bias or errors in the news, for Canadian news I use my local paper and CBC, for American and world news I watch the Newshour with Jim Leher, and I also use the internet.

The Newshour is a textbook example of a good news show, they have the summary, and then they spend time on each story, unlike CNN and FoxNews which have 24 hours to fill, but can only talk to a "talking head" for 30 seconds before moving on. I always find it amusing / annoying to hear "Well we would love to hear more but we're out of time" since they're going to replay that same 30 seconds 100 times during the day.

Winnipeg, MB

Dear FRONTLINE,

"Citizen Journalists"? A 15-year-old with a camera phone, who posts her pictures, video and opinion on her myspace.com page is a journalist?? So, using that logic, if I nail two boards together, I'm a carpenter, right? If I add 1 plus 1, I'm a mathematician? Put a bandage on a boo boo and I'm now a doctor? Amazing. Please...

Barney McComas
San Diego, CA

Dear FRONTLINE,

To me the "hyper-localism" advocated by the newspaper study groups would be the death of newspapers. To think that I would be interested in buying a newspaper that emphasizes high school sports is ridiculous. I wouldn't read that if it were free. Even more ridiculous is the idea that USA Today is a national newspaper. Of course it's distributed nationally but in general it has the news content of People magazine. That's not reporting, it's fluff and while fluff has its place and it's fun, it shouldn't be the bulk of the newspaper.

I read the paper for national news and international news and the editorials and the business section. I want to know what is going on in the world and what affects my life, the economy and the country. This also includes the local level, but for important issues such as land use and what the state, county and local government is doing, not the high school football team and since I live in the Denver-metro area, would that be all the teams? I'm not interested in buying the New York Times because it is not a paper the cares about the west or covers stories in the west.

With a newly combined Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News I have seen the quality of the newspaper decline. While it's still good, far better than say either paper in the Phoenix area, it is declining. It is declining because of the quality of the stories not because it doesn't cover Conifer High School's girl's volleyball game. The papers cut staff and cover less or cover just the fluff. The less that is covered, the less readers you have, the less reader the less profit, so management forces more cuts that leads to less coverage. A death spiral for newspapers. As the coverage declines it makes me reconsider having a newspaper subscription and because of the poor coverage I look for me news in other forums such as the internet, NPR and PBS's News Hour.

So it's not that the internet is "stealing" the readers, or that people are not interested in these issue, it's that these issues are not covered or are covered poorly by the newspapers. Cutting staff won't solve the problem it will only make it worse. And I agree with part 3 of the show in that news coverage, critical, in-depth and investigative coverage is essential to a democracy.

morrison, colorado

Dear FRONTLINE,

I enjoyed watching the series on the role of the media in the United States and the changes being wrought by the growth of the internet. I, as well as many others, bemoan the commercialization of news coverage and the encroachment on our civil liberties and freedom of the press being made by our current administration. My response to the financial pressures being faced by the public papers (i.e. those run by the Tribune) would be that print media should charge the internet companies more money to use their stories and reporting.

The unending layoff pattern that has afflicted the LA Times is besetting numerous other industries in addition to the publishing industry. I think it is horrendous that shareholders are willing to see CEOs compensated at 100s of percentages higher than the average worker, yet continue to cut staff in order to increase profits. Many well qualified and hard working Americans are losing high paying jobs every day to be replaced with lower wage positions. We seem to be going in the wrong direction. I realize that change is inevitable, but hope that more farsight can be brought to bear on the outcome.

Marie Dobay
Houston, TX

Dear FRONTLINE,

Hello--I just watched part three of the News War series and I thought it was extremely well done and enjoyed watching it very much. I then went to your web site to view the interviews, and I realized that only four of these are interviews with women, and only one, Dana Priest, is a reporter.

This is a little disturbing when I think about it. I realize that there are not as many women as men in positions of power in the news media, but couldn't there have been at least a few more?

Somerset , NJ

Dear FRONTLINE,

As an Ariel investor, I was appalled by Mr. Charles Bobrinsky's views and by Ariel's critical role in the LA Times debacle. Many people have invested their money with Ariel based upon the apparently false notion that Ariel was an enlightened and progressive organization. Mr. Bobrinskoy has convinced me that that Ariel no longer deserves its reputation or my money. It's a shame that progressive investors can't do to Ariel and Tribune what the counrty radio stations did to the Dixie Chicks.

Greg Carr
Cornelius, NC

Dear FRONTLINE,

I continued to read our local paper (The Tennessean) until the liberal bias made me sick. Bias one of the big reasons papers are dying. This was practically ignored in your story, because you don't want to believe it.

Tom Massey
Franklin, TN

Dear FRONTLINE,

It was interesting to see the Naples Daily News included in this series, and the focus on "hyperlocalism." However, just as fascinating - I never read that newspaper even though I live in SW Florida. Never. I only read it if I specifically want to know something local, and for me, that's not very often. But, whenever I try to buy the NY Times at certain Starbucks, it's always sold out.

As a NYer, I still want to read the NY Times each day, and I have never gotten into the habit of buying a local paper. I have relatives here in Florida who also moved here from New York, and they retain the same habits I do in terms of newspaper buying - we all still buy the NY Times or read it daily on the web. Very rarely do we read a local newspaper. Once in a while we watch local tv news and that is more than enough local news for us.

We are very into the internet, and people into the net are basically living "locally" online in a much larger community than Naples, Florida.

SW Florida, USA

Dear FRONTLINE,

I lived in Los Angeles for many years, leaving in the mid eighties. As I moved around the country the one thing that I missed most was not being able to get the LA Times. Now retired and living in back in my home state of Ohio, I still miss the Times. I subscribe online, but I miss the presence of that big hulking mass of Sunday Times with Calender and Home magazine. But I always felt, and still do, that the LA Times was on a par with the New York Times and the Washington Post. Why shouldn't the West Coast be represented by a major paper on the national scene? Does Chicago feel eclipsed by Los Angeles? California as a trend setter in both culture and politics needs something like the LA Times out there for the rest of the country to see and understand what's coming at them in the coming year. Bring back the Chandlers!

Robert Webber
Fairfield , Ohio

Dear FRONTLINE,

It is ridiculous to see all of these American reporters and editors trying to argue against the complete distrust and resentment the average person has toward the mass media. And the media blames the Republicans, the educational system, and everything else but the barometric pressure in Borneo. Why is it so hard to understand that people do not like being lied to, talked down to, and manipulated as if they were idiots? The main reason the American newspapers and TV news are losing their audience is that they have smugly and arrogantly destroyed their credibility. Paying Katie Couric $1.25 million per month to read 4 minutes a night of left-wing indoctrination from a teleprompter? Are they out of their mind?! How could things have possibly gotten this bad? A person could not make this stuff up in their wildest dreams. Even when specific figures or statistics are quoted in the media, it is a sure bet that they have nothing to do with the truth, or what is actually going on. A person might as well go out of their way to seek the truth from an alcoholic used car salesman.

Escondido, CA