“Not a smart move.” That’s what the president of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists said yesterday morning of the Star Tribune’s plan to get columnists to switch to reporting. Mike Argento, also a columnist for the York Daily Record in Pennsylvania, said, “Columnists are the personality of a newspaper; the voice of a newspaper. That’s how a newspaper connects with readers… It’s just a reflection of the sad state of the newspaper industry. Many of the people running newspapers don’t have a vision. They’re concerned with dollars and cents, and the bottom line. They should look at the future, not just slash and burn.”

Meanwhile, John McQuaid at NewAssignment.net, writes that axing James Lileks’ column is “so self-evidently dumb, an Umbridge-worthy example of the bureaucratic mentality run amok, that you have to wonder if newspapers