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Yesssssssss – Peter Griffin excited noise –

Imagine how I felt when, after several consecutive slow ‘loggin days, I awoke from a brief winter’s slumber (I need Vitamin B, sun– badly) to find that Les Bowen punch recipient Jeff McLane had hurled a grammatical assault at Pro Football Talk – which is by far the most read football site on the interwebtuals – and then PFT fired back with an oh-so-perfect and succinct commentary, summing up quite well why Jeff’s employer is about to lay off 37 newsroom employees. Story!

First, the sad news. Earlier, Philly.com confirmed rumors that Philadelphia Media Network will layoff at least 37 newsroom employees: [Philly.com]

PMN spokesman Mark Block said two things are driving the workforce cuts: First, conditions remain challenging in the news business. Also, the privately held company wants "to combine newsroom functions for more efficiency wherever possible," he said.

PMN's top editors met with Guild leadership Wednesday to discuss plans for combining the functions of the copy desks, metro desks, and sports and features departments of The Inquirer, Daily News, and Philly.com. Editors intend to hold staffwide meetings about the changes on Thursday.

 

Sad. 

Not surprising. 

But then, just an hour later, the man who once ripped his own colleague – yet direct competitor – fellow Eagles beat reporter Les Bowen, calling him an "old hack who hasn't broken a story in years," took aim at Pro Football Talk:

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As you might imagine would be the case with Mike Florio, PFT’s founder who once took a (probably deserved) shot at yours truly, he fired back at McLane with a scathing message, cutting right to the core of the issues the Inquirer and Daily News are having: 

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Of course Jeff wants to continue the dialogue here– Florio just snipped his you know whats.

 

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Score one for Florio– he’s right. I can tell you from experience that a link from a site like Pro Football Talk, even if they do regurgitate a story, is very valuable, as are the links from any widely read site. The links from such sites should be encouraged, not shown a frowny face. While they may hurt business for mainstream sites (no argument there), they can hurt them, um, less if those sites try to be on the receiving end of links.

Anyway, we assume Les Bowen’s punching bag and Mike Florio’s hair took it to direct message, and, sadly, the rest of the world won’t get to enjoy that cock measuring contest. 

But I think I know who will win.

…

If this interests you, then you'll probably like this piece by the NY Times. They wrote that PMN owners were interfering with coverage of the paper's sale, and point out that Ed Rendell and Ed Snider buying the papers is a very real possibility.