The Strib: A Flipper's Nightmare Come True

One of the curiosities of Sunday's New York Post story about the Star Tribune being "on the brink of bankruptcy" was that the Strib's owners, Avista Capital Partners, were in no way proactive about the Blackstone "restructuring" team (damn, I love flagrant euphemisms) being "hired" on to . . . you know . . . clean things up.

After a very long year with this crack investment team, we all understand that that "communications thing" really isn't their game. But you would have thought the paper's current publisher, Chris Harte, a.k.a. Avista's "newspaper guy," would have understood that "hiring" heavyweights such as Blackstone might be news, and, therefore, maybe it would probably be a good idea to get ahead of the curve and do the fancy dance, reassuring skeptics that this is simply good, old-fashioned, contingency business stuff, nothing urgent, nothing overly serious. It would, I'm saying, be better than, mmmm, letting someone slide a rumor of bankruptcy to a tabloid that then goes ricocheting around the Internet, making you look like a colossal basket case.

Frankly, I'm torn between believing that Harte and Avista are just so clueless about how this media thingie works that they never considered a leak a possibility and wondering if they planted the whole thing as an elaborate ploy to shock the Guild into caving early and easily in the contract negotiations that begin this week. Over at City Pages, Jeff Shaw speculates on that theory. Meanwhile, my hard news zealot pal, David Brauer, is hearing a lot like what I'm hearing from lowly Guild types.

As sympathetic as I am to the Guild's cause, I find it hard to believe that Avista would bother ginning up a semi-bogus story in the Post just to get a little leverage on the Strib unions. I mean, what more do they need? The leverage they already have is kind of like a gang of rum-crazed pirates with pitchforks and boiling oil pushing the hapless seamen off the end of the plank.

Anyway, a friend who has worked both at local TV stations and newspapers got in on an e-mail conversation about the Strib and all old media's troubles. He had some suggestions for survival:

"Here are some revolutionary ideas that could help the paper without having to cut worker wages: Cut executive pay. Cut executive jobs. Cut executive perks. Lower profit expectations in line with the new realities of the business. Increase demand by improving the product. "I think we can all give an example of a business that went swirling into the great [bleeper] of oblivion because short-term-thinkers would rather degrade the quality of the product rather than adjust expectations. The solutions news organizations prefer is cutting bodies. "Here's how it works:  A lower-quality-product, which means a smaller audience which means less revenue which leads to ... A lower-quality-product, which means a smaller audience which means less revenue which leads to ... A lower-quality-product, which means a smaller audience which means less revenue which leads to ... A lower-quality-product, which means a smaller audience which means less revenue which leads to ...  (repeat until someone turns out the lights.) "I watched Montgomery Wards cheap itself out of existence. True story to illustrate -- I had a district manager in my store reaming me because the shelves were empty in the drapery department and there were three pages of the next Sunday's ad dedicated to the department. He insisted I call the buying office. The buyer said -- "The cost of the merchandise you need to fill your shelves is double what they gave me to buy for the whole chain." Oh, and I didn't get a bonus because I failed to meet my sales budget. "Then there is TV land. When I started at [local station] eight years ago every show had at least two writers, often a third or fourth person would float between shows. When I left, a second writer was a rare treat. The producers were given additional duties -- creating their own graphics, their own administrative tasks, editing some of their own video, and fewer reporters to provide content for the show. I'd guess that the typical producer is now doing the work of at least three people, often four. The product suffers, but heck, fewer people are watching -- so there will be more cuts.  "Remember when 3M got a new CEO who said the company was spending too much on R&D? "Now newspapers. The cuts came from the top, so there's a great big gap in institutional knowledge.  At least half the reporters I talk to say they don't know how to write a headline. I had to explain subject-verb agreement to one editor last week. The paper gets thinner, and fewer people read -- so the paper gets thinner, and fewer people read. Yes, much of this has to do with the switch to online -- but news is still news and there is a business."

This friend reminds me of the Strib's Mike Meyers in both girth and wit. So I called Meyers to get his thinking on the Avista-planting-the-rumor theory. He wasn't buying: "You're right. They've got all the leverage they need. I think that's a little egocentric on our part." But Meyers, who has been pretty astute on Northwest's connivery throughout the years, says, "I suspect bankruptcy is on the table. But I think if Avista planted it [with the Post], it's to bring in new investors, fast."

Which leads to one of the parlor/barroom games of the moment here in Minnesota. What is the Strib worth right now?

Since Avista is private, Meyers whips up the recent numbers on McClatchy's thirty-paper empire. Current market capitalization, he says, is listed at approximately $808 million, with the average value per paper at $31 million. Projecting out at ten times the average value, the flagship Miami Herald [with slightly less circulation than the Strib] might then be worth $310 million. So, give Avista a generous twelve times average for the former McClatchy property Star Tribune, and we're talking $360 million, or $70 million less than the "mortgage" (forget the $100 million in real money they'll never see again) . . . and still slipping.

So is the market hard on flippers such as Avista, or are flippers such as Avista hard on the market?

Comments

[Dave]

Who would have thunk that you could get a subprime mortgage on a newspaper...

We still get the Strib here at the suburban shack. I'll admit I rarely read it, my wife does glance at it. I check their website each day (for free which I still don't understand). Last time I looked at the paper Strib, I was shocked at how small it has become and how few ads are in it.

Avista has now entered private equity hell. The asset is worth less than the debt and no one will touch it. If they chop more heads, the asset will depreciate even more.

There only solution is to take their lumps and merge with the paper on the other side of the river (before both take on more water).

LAMBERT: And if you think the Strib looks thin, try picking up a PiPress some time.

[Dave McShades]

While display ads are definitely the bread and butter, remember when there were 2.5 pounds of Classifieds on Sundays?

Craigslist and Monster took care of that neatly -- as in "Here we see two of those six Mosquitoes just after they have neatly bounced a pair of bombs through the front door of the Gestapo building."

Google the phrase for the picture.

LAMBERT: I'm quite certain that's our first RAF analogy. Nicely done, old chap.

[Robb]

Dave: "...for free which I still don't understand..." Humm...?

StarTribune tried PAY-PER-VIEW of their newspages on the web and the business model tanked. Big time. StarTribune under Cowles Media entered into an online subscription scheme with a consortium of other newspapers (Washington Post and others) back in the early 90s and it was a fiasco, especially at the time when newspapers of a higher quality content (NYT, San Jose Mercury, The Guardian, etc) where repositioning their content to the web and not charging the readers for access.

You don't pay CBS to watch 60 Minutes. What's not to understand?

LAMBERT: Sorry for the backlog in posting comments today. I had a funeral out in beautiful west central Minnesota.

I still ask myself if there isn't a way to license reported information. Obviously anyone ca yank any piece of info out of copy, but they in anyway traded -- as Google and Yahoo do -- the actual pieces, they'd be required to pay a royalty. i have no idea how anyone would do the accounting on that ....

[bertram jr]

I say, more RAF analogies just may be what this column needs!

The Strib offered a rather breathless 10 inches on an EX-newsreaders fertility yesterday....

I was trying to imagine a Wall Street financier's, who might be looking over the paper, reaction.

Especially if he also catches "that other" column on Sundays in the "Arts" section.

LAMBERT: Bertram, give yourself a break from Claude and Rick. I'm sure they'd appreciate it.

[Julio Ojeda-Zapata]

Brian, I'm pleased to see my former colleague doing so well. Keep it up, dude. I like your stuff -- and I'd like it even more if your MSP employer would do something about the really tiiiiiiiiiny type on its Web site. Because of this, reading your columns has been a bit of an ordeal. Oh, I'll keep reading, but it'd sure be great not to squint.

LAMBERT: Julio, good to hear from you. I agree, and I'll pass this on. (Julio is the PiPress's indefatigable tech reporter.)

[Wenalway]

"I had to explain subject-verb agreement to one editor last week."

Not a surprise. Some city "editors" view their jobs as administration-only positions. They don't edit.

The biggest problems in many newsrooms reside on the city desk and in the managing editor's office. When the ME doesn't care, the people who aren't on the front lines don't have to, either. And often the only supervision for a lazy ME comes from a dollar-focused publisher.

LAMBERT: Don't get me started on the "editing" talents of today's upper and middle editors. The first order of business should be a look at any 20 stories they've written.

[loose]

On your valuation, you're assuming revenues will level off and stop their plunge. Not sure that's a reasonable assumption.

LAMBERT: Actually I'm not. My valuations -- Mike Meyer's, really -- are as rosy as you can possibly making them, and they are still dropping.

[Ethics 101]

Whoever your wag is, in his "revolutionary ideas" list, might as well include "abstinence from sex, booze and prescription drugs" and "termination of country club privileges" among those ideas. Those five suggestions, which would hit newspaper management where it hurts, either get rejected immediately or aren't even on the table.

It is laughable that the great minds at Avista and other dying newspapers think that cutting their way to profitability actually is a viable strategy. They look at journalists as overhead (Tribune Co. despot Sam Zell actually uses that word) rather than, at least, as the product.

The latest move -- to downsize the paper literally, by cutting pages per week -- inevitably will lead to more staff cuts, since fewer people will be needed to put out a smaller paper. The Guild will be dancing as fast as it can just to preserve the head count of unit-covered jobs, allowing Avista to come with the high heat of wage givebacks.

LAMBERT: I just keep remembering the $600,000 Knight Ridder handed over to Par Ridder to encourage him to stay with the company as it went through difficulties related to the sale to McClatchy. $600K! What amazes me more is that that kind of fat ass pay-out -- real hedge fund manager lucre -- was consider more or less normal for a valued executive like Par. astonishing.

[Rich Goldsmith]

Logic rarely has anything to do with the newspaper business. And I'd be amazed if anyone on either side of the river was advocating for a merger. There's just too much animosity.

I honestly don't think the Strib will ever fold. They will, however, tout a few more redesigns and some gilding on the pig while they cut more staff before they wise up and go back to the days of real reporting, mixed with some sex column style pandering, of course.

Though the reporting and pandering will, of course, be primarily online. I could see the actual physical paper dropping to just weekends once some of the seniors around town start dropping.

LAMBERT: I doubt anyone in either newsroom is pushing for a merger. I just continue to say that Dean Singleton is the obvious guy to offer Avista -- I'm saying something in the high $100 millions range -- for what is left of the Strib after Blackstone does its work. If there are local millionaires who want in, Singleton knows a hell of a lot more about handling the miserable economics of the business than any of them do.

[ML]

I'm assuming you saw the story currently posted at KARE11 about the Strib.

Following is part of it:
The owner of the Star Tribune wrote down three-quarters of its $100 million investment and said the newspaper's outlook "remains uncertain." Avista Capital Partners bought Minnesota's largest newspaper in March 2007 and took the write-down at the end of that year, according to an Avista memo to investors cited in a Star Tribune story on Wednesday.

The memo cited the newspaper industry's "greater than expected declines in circulation and advertising revenue, particularly in print classified advertising" and said, "The outlook in the near to medium term remains uncertain."

Avista financed the deal with borrowed money, including $340 million in debt recently valued at 56 cents on the dollar, according to bid prices for "institutional leveraged loans," the Star Tribune reported. A subordinate loan of $96 million was trading for 10 cents on the dollar.

"We are optimistic that the additional leadership we have put in place in revenue-generating positions at the Star Tribune will formulate an effective strategy to grow revenue. We view 2008 as the year to prove a recovery is possible and that the trends we have experienced since the time of this investment can be reversed."

LAMBERT: That last graph is a classic of corporate gibberish. "We are optimistic ... will formulate an effective strategy ... the year to prove recovery is possible ... " Now THAT is funny.

[flimflam]

What if we created a Minnesota "hall of shame" for corporate "leaders" who have most hurt our cities and state. Avista mismanagement would surely be on it. Also McClatchy. Who else?

LAMBERT: Al Checchi and Gary Wilson?

[Frogman of Grant]

Newspaper ownership by the likes of Avista is only a slightly worse variant of ownership by a publicly-traded company. In both, the maximization of investor/shareholder value takes precedence over all else--including the history and the public trust that have been integral to the Fourth Estate since the press was formallly recognized as an essential feature of our democracy in the Constitution. Now that a succession of public companies have rung up a staggering debt load for most American newspapers, the papers are fast reaching the point of insolvency. Result: newspapers aren't worth owning, aren't worth buying, and soon won't be worth selling for anything other than the land they're sitting on. Don't look for a happy endgame. The cost-cutting won't stop until newspapers are worth more dead than alive...at which point that's likely the way things will finish up.

LAMBERT: Not all of these newspapers are burdened with the debt issue afflicting the Strib. If by some miracle a new buyer could pay cash for the thing -- in the $175-$200 million range, I'm guessing -- there might be a possibility of maintaining current content levels.

[A Son of Mississippi]

Seems to me Avista should have called in those masters of finance, Al Checchi and Gary Wilson. They've always been known for adroitly balancing the public interest with corporate greed.

LAMBERT: Whoa! Great minds thinking alike.

[John R.]

Speaking of the Pioneer, I saw one in the rack yesterday and noticed for the first time that it is now the "Minnesota Pioneer Press."

WTF? When did that happen?

LAMBERT: I was stunned when I saw that new design. Lord that is cheap-looking and ugly. I hope Singleton didn't pay anyone to do the de-design work.

[MiddleSpunkCreek]

I like the StarTrib over breakfast.

It is the local tv stations I have cut out. I get the news all day on the internet.

LAMBERT: Somebody asked me today how much of my daily news I get off the internet? My guess was 60-65%, with maybe 20% from TV and the rest from paper newspapers.

[Jim Leinfelder]

(cringe) Talk about an unabashed ORGY of schadenfreude. Don't some of you sages still have friends working at these two moribund newspapers?

LAMBERT: You think THEY don't already know this?

[Bleuler]

You write so well sometimes you are almost convincing.

One could hope and pray that there are richos at the top of the Strib who can be cut and save the working proletariat. I don't think so.

I think part of the problem is that no one in your and recent generations has faced business plans that all of a sudden didn't work. I will use as an example an excerpt from Bloomberg that makes my point about local units of government:

"....May 7 (Bloomberg) -- Vallejo, California, officials voted to file for bankruptcy because the San Francisco suburb isn't able pay its bills after costs for police and firefighters soared and the housing market's slide cut into tax revenue.

"...The city council's unanimous decision last night will make Vallejo the largest California city to file for bankruptcy and the first in the state to seek protection from creditors because it ran out of money to pay for basic services. The decision came after it failed to win salary concessions from labor unions.

"...The city of 117,000 is facing ballooning labor costs and declining housing-related tax revenue that have left it with a $16 million deficit forecast for the year starting in July. In bankruptcy, creditors will be kept at bay while officials devise a plan to balance the books. City services would still operate.

Both our newspapers are failing. Soon we will have one or more local governments fail. The reason is simple--declining revenues and rising expenses. Something no one ever prepares for but should. Usually what happens is the entity goes bankrupt, the debt is marked down or eliminated altogether and new hands run the show. This is the most likely alternative for the Strib.

In the meantime Guild officers should prepare their resumes.

LAMBERT: Here's a trick question for you. Among all these various expenses crippling Vallejo, other city and state governments, GM, Ford and most small businesses, which one do you think might be mitigated by some revolutionary thinking, based on existing first world models?

[Jim Leinfelder]

Just sayin', knowing you're screwed and bearing witness to other people, some of them peers, making detached sport of the sword of Damocles dangling so tenuously over your career and family's income are not exactly the same thing.

But I'm suyre ya'll know what's best.

LAMBERT: I wouldn't call it "detached sport", if for no other reason than I've been through a variation in this. But what's the alternative? Ignoring it? Eschewing the glib vernacular for a straight, traditional presentation of the same grim information?

[Frogman of Grant]

Well, what a good point you've made! To restate it, if I may be so bold: In the event that a miracle occurs and some earnest believer in the power of the press steps forward with $175 - $200 million to take the Strib off Avista's hands, then the paper might be able to remain "as is" in its already greatly diminished state. Phew! At least there's hope!

LAMBERT: For once you've construed me, properly. You must be feeling better. It's Hillary's demise, isn't it?

[108]

A lots changing. I was delivering papers merely three years ago, before I found my footing as a self employed service and goods provider.

To me, the distribution model breaks down in the early AM. You have a 100 paper route and you're putting papers at the doors of about two houses per block. When I was tossing gas was $1.50, and it was a proposition that barely worked then. Cash flow basically. Another $400 or $500 to put in the bank every two weeks, but you werent making much profit.

I dont know how the carriers are putting up with this. I doubt theyve gotten better rates.

LAMBERT: It simply isn't sustainable. Period.

[Frogman of Grant]

I'll guess that 99 percent of the people who read this online column have friends working at the Star Tribune and the Pioneer Press. But I don't know why Mr. Leinfelder detects schadenfreude in the postings about the papers' widely known problems. On the contrary, I see mainly sadness and anger and genuine concern in these pre-mortems. And not just for the benefit of friends and colleagues whose jobs are at risk, but for the much larger loss to the community that will occur should one or both of these newspapers go under. In the meantime, who can deny that the local dailies are already pale shadows of their former selves?

LAMBERT: Thank you. Twice in one morning. Now I'm worried.

[Napoleon]

Mr. Lambert,

I have noticed more hostility from your magazine towards the Strib since they launched MARQ magazine. City Pages has had a fixation on the Strib since they launched Vita.MN.

It doesn't appear honesty is your strong suit.

ALL old or traditional media is in trouble. Not just newspapers. Radio, television, yellow pages, those shared mailing crap I get every week AND MAGAZINES are all screwed.

Try to be more upfront with both your readers next time.

LAMBERT: I am honestly unaware of what others here have said about MARQ. In my view it's kind of all sizzle and no steak. I have an expectation of information content AND a bit of art in the writing. I can look at pretty pictures just about anywhere.

But to your point about "all screwed", I don't agree, and I don't think I'm whistling past the graveyard. Tne aspect of editorial consumption that continues to convince magazine publishers there is life in this particular beast is that both advertisers and readers take a unique and unreproducable level of pleasure in the look and feel -- and portability -- of glossy magazines. In stark contrast to newspapers -- even in their most graphics-addled moments (50" of design for 5" of text) -- a well art-directed magazine is quite a bit more appealing and satisfying on an artistic, tactile level than the average newspaper. (And then there's the new PiPress.) You can't supply the essential value of a good magazine on a computer screen.

Once a level of artistic quality is established, the challenge is obviously to buttress yourself with content that is equally unique and artful.

[Jimmy the Greek]

Lambert,

You are saying printed magazines have a bright future? You should take a harder look at your own future.

LAMBERT: See my comments to "Napoleon". But by any comparison, the future of a well-produced glossy magazine -- a city magazine with an established niche as is the case with this one -- is brighter than a daily newspaper. Admittedly, that doesn't sound like I'm saying much. But readers, as I say to Napoleon, have different expectations for magazines than they do for newspapers.

[Joan Sheridan]

Mr. Lambert,

I read the Star Tribune on Sat and Sundays. I enjoy it very much (as I do your column), but I spend hours on StarTribune.com

It seems you are only focused on the printed version, not the online version. Everyone I know looks at StarTribune.com each day.

I forsee a StarTribune living on for years in an online form.

Secondly, I worked at a magazine for 2 years. The challenge for your magazine - and magazines in general - is cost of paper. People are not going to spend $4 or $5 for magazines at the grocery store when they are paying so much for food. They will simply look online. I can't afford your magazine anymore.

I believe Napoloean makes a valid point about traditional media - magazines included - that you are all in a difficult position vs the Internet. Maybe you should start considering working with other traditional media to survive.

LAMBERT: Being certified geezer I too read the Strib. i subscribe to the Strib. I find I don't spend as much time with the Strib on line as other sites -- The NY Times, Slate, Huffington Post, the Guardian, Lifehacker, yadda yadda -- because ... well, because ... I'm finding things of more value to me elsewhere than on the Strib's site. But at the moment and for as far as I can see advertising revenue is the mother's milk of publishing, and you simply can't replicate the appeal and impact of on-line ads pasted around the edges of a website with those in a newspaper or magazine. My point to Napoleon is that consumers come to magazines like this one in expectation -- maybe even in anticipation -- of attractive advertising lay-outs. They ENJOY it. This is different than their expectations for newspapers, which is to say better for magazines.

[A Son of Mississippi]

You know the Strib is doomed when Reusse starts writing about it.

LAMBERT: Patrick appears to have taken heart from H.G. Bissinger on Costas the other day.

[Karen H.]

Your magazine is WAY too expensive!

I can't afford it either. That's why I check out your website.

To be fair, I have noticed all magazines are ridiculously priced. $5 for a TIME magazine?

I am sorry - but food beats glossy, 'nice feel' magazines any day!

LAMBERT: I'll pass your thoughts on to the bosses. But some of that retail price is an incentive to subscribe ... at a fraction of newstand.

[Jim Leinfelder]

Well, okay, I stand corrected. You and the Frogman certainly have made your case for knowing the human heart better than I.

But I'll bloviate on and just say that what turns me off about all this is the glib tone, the same detached and gleeful tone that turns me off from the ESPN-syle of cable's coverage of politics as sport and Marketplace's smarmy, above-it-all style of covering economic downturns as if real people weren't feeling the pain.

Maybe my more tenuous existence as as a freelancer makes me more sensitive.Just a sprinkle of empathy wouldn't hurt, I don't think.

LAMBERT: And remind me, where are you on the Gary Eichten/Kathy Wurzer/Kerri Miller "tone"?

[108]

I love Kerri Miller.

LAMBERT: She'll be flattered to know that.

[Pierce County Politician]

I'm in love with Cathy Wurzer, and I don't think I'm the only one.

[bertram jr]

I vote Wurzer.

Rowwwwwwwr.

[bleuler]

In response to your request as to what can be actually done in respect to the Strib, there is only one thing. The debt must be written down or written off. What is killing them is debt/equity ratio that is like a hungry alligator eating up everything in sight.

I presume, but don't know, they are making money until they come to the interest expense. If this is not true, and they are actually not making money regardless of interest expense, it is a safe assumption they are just not long for this world in their present structure.

Governments--federal,state,local--carry pension and other obligations as well as debt that require servicing. As long as they can keep increasing taxes they can stay ahead of insolvency; however, once the tax well runs dry they begin to dry up and shrivel. The outcome is debt, expenses and accrued liabilities are written down. Then the game begins anew.

The federal government, for instance, is on a cash basis accounting. That is it is money in and money out. They don't account for pension and other accrued liabilities. This means if they were private entities someone would go to jail.

LAMBERT: So who is in the perp walk for the $600 billion plus in supplemental Iraq funding?

[Toodles]

Kerri is GREAT!

Not to harp on the cost of your magazine, but is a little on the high side.

Why pay anything if I can see it here for free?

Keep up the good work!

[Chuckles]

Mr. Lambert:

Way to stick up for your new corporate owners! "They like the glossy, feel of a magazine"? What crap is that?

I like the online version myself. That goes for the StarTribune and PioneerPress. All print is done! As is radio (hopefully we won't be hearing Dan Barrario and his wining much longer).

We miss you at THE RAKE!

LAMBERT: Wow, a shot at Barreiro. I don't catch him as often as I used to, but I enjoyed Dan's meltdowns. (I think he's got a man crush on Vince Flynn, though.)

But I'm actually serious about the magazine thing. I subscribe to about a dozen magazines -- from Consumer Reports to Esquire to the New Yorker to National Geographic to Automobile and I understand what whatever whacked-out esthete it was who was making point that a beautifully art-directed magazine, with first rate photography AND solid, artful writing is like an object of art. Disposable, yes, but not instantly disposable as newspapers are. I guess I get linked to bits from magazines, but I the ones I like best, I subscribe to and tote around when I'm up north or wherever.

[McMahon]

I like printed newspapers and magazines, and I am 47 years old. Hardly a senior citizen.

(I usually avoid the Internet, but my wife wants a recipe on your site).

What do you hate the Strib so much? It's a newspaper for chrissake. Some of us poor folks can't afford to sit around Starbucks blogging all day with our WIFI.

Just give me the sports section and leave me be.

I hate the idea of no StarTribune or Pioneer Press. I would go nuts.

PS I like Dan Barrario too. Leave him be.

LAMBERT: It's the Strib's owners I have a problem with, and I like Dan. But what is with that Vince Flynn thing?

[Jim Leinfelder]

Where am I with them? Generally bored. You, on the other hand, never bore. But I gotta' bellyache once in awhile what with my reputation as your, what does Bertram Jr. call me? I forget.

LAMBERT: Our question is -- what is your notion of the proper tone, and who is hitting it?

[Jim Leinfelder]

Hey, if the Strib employees whose livelihoods and mortgages hang in the balance are cool with the tone, I guess it shouldn't matter to me. I'll bow out.

LAMBERT: That's not like you.

[bertram jr]

"Man crush"?

Is this some sort of "Withering Glance" rip-off now?

Vince Flynn is a great guy, a best selling author, and like you, an Edina resident.

So you are actually 1/3 identical to him!

Ahahahhahahahaha!

Happy Friday.

[Vince Flynn]

Hi Vince Here!

Your magazine's circulation has been declining for years. Quit kissing your new owners ass!

I though I could depend on you for the truth!

The Rake RULES!!!!

- Vince

PS Nice website - if I need a brownies recipe I'll be sure to be back and chat.

LAMBERT: We give better recipe than Barreiro.

[bertram jr]

Vince - you rule!

(Say, why don't you see if ClaudeNRick will review your new book... or at least your back cover pic).

[Jim Leinfelder]

Good Gawd, Bertram, get a room or, at a minimum, a private booth with a paper towel dispenser. Ewwwww!

[bertram jr]

Uh, that was a jab at the Strib's poster boys for "the love that dare not speak it's name".

My admiration for Flynn is confined to his writing and his political POV.

LAMBERT: Are you still fixated on Claude and Rick? Are they your first thought in the morning? Do you know their favorite place for morning coffee? If they sleep in the nude? I could ask them if you're too shy.

[bertram jr]

I'd rather ask potential investors in Avista what THEY think of said "column" appearing weekly in a major metropolitan daily.

You know, vis a vis declining readership, suppositions of blatant liberal bias, etc.

Oh, and appropriateness for "family" reading.

YOU doth seemeth far more concerned with their personal habits, not I.