Media Monitor: From Kersten to kitty litter

Strib cuts: As the Star Tribune reports that Avista Capital Partners has “written down the value of its $100 million investment in the newspaper by 75 percent,” David Brauer writes that some cost-cutting measures at the paper are actually being embraced in the newsroom. This summer, the Source section will go back to its old name, Variety, and seven pages of content per week will be cut. That might bring heartier arts coverage. He quotes theater critic Graydon Royce on what the cuts might rid us of: non-local wire stories. “We might not have the 30-inch feature from the Baltimore Sun or the Dallas Morning News on kitty litter, that sort of thing.”

Endgame: And at MPR, Tim Nelson talks to Lauren Fine, a former media analyst for Merrill Lynch, about options — from a joint operating agreement between the two papers to an outright purchase of the Strib by PiPress owner Media News — for the two Twin Cities dailies.

Censoring comments: Meanwhile, City Pages notes that readers are complaining that comments critical of the Strib are getting deleted from the paper’s site.

Ideological editing: City Pages’ Kevin Hoffman follows a reader’s tip and Googles bits of Strib columnist Katherine Kersten’s recent column on the evils of Grand Theft Auto, finding she “used some selective editing to remove portions that were inconvenient to her conservative orthodoxy.”