SJ-R publisher Sue Schmidt, editor Barry Locher, and managing editor Robert Pope have all submitted their resignations. I won’t speculate why, but it is extremely disappointing.

I never met Sue Schmidt, but I did have the pleasure of making Robert Pope’s acquaintance one afternoon. I did get to know Barry Locher and I can tell you that he is not only a great guy, but he is also very committed to using the newspaper to benefit the community. He also had the wisdom and foresight to give an unknown blogger a chance to be read by a wider audience.

Earlier this week, I started writing a post about the importance of local newspapers. I’ll try to finish it up tomorrow, but today’s news goes a long way in disproving my theory that local newspapers will stay strong if only because there is nothing to fill the void in coverage if they disappear. The SJ-R isn’t gone, but a lot of what made the paper strong just walked out the door.