To stay in business, a paper needs to make money. But much more importantly, to stay relevant, a paper needs to be able to pay for people to write quality news.
In an effort to maintain the quality of a paper that has won 13 Pulitzer Prizes in the last five years, the top editor and publisher of the Los Angeles Times are resisting demands for cuts by the paper's owners at the Tribune Company.
The requested cuts would reportedly require firing dozens of reporters from a newsroom staff that has already lost 200 editorial positions in the past six years.
Imagine how much worse the requested cuts could be if the Times weren't already running at a 20 percent profit margin.
Fortunately, as of the writing of this column, neither the paper's dissenting editor, Dean Baquet, nor its publisher, Jeffrey M. Johnson, have been fired.
Whether or not the integrity of these men results in their termination from their positions, the conflict raises very important questions about how our media operates.
The news media is definitely a business, and that's not entirely a bad thing. Competition between papers means that journalists have to constantly strive for perfection, making sure that their words reflect the world that is changing all around us.
But, unlike many other businesses, the product of the news media is integral to a free and authentic democratic society.
Without the news, America would be completely disconnected from what happens in the communities around it.
Without the news, America has no way of knowing that its elected officials are (or aren't) doing what they said they would do when they convinced a majority to vote for them.
Still, government deregulation over the past decade has led to more and more papers being owned at a corporate level. This makes the Times case of having to choose between pleasing stockholders and keeping a newsroom fully staffed one that is unfortunately far from unique.
Alternatives to being dependent on big money from above have presented themselves.
Such an alternative may present itself for the Los Angeles Times, as three billionaires have all independently offered to buy out ownership from Tribune.
Whether the Tribune decides to hand over the reigns or reconsider its fiscal plan, hopefully the stand taken by Baquet and Johnson will not have been in vain.