Mature Life Features

. . . today by picking up one of the three Arizona Republics delivered daily to the bistro.

That newsroom has three dozen reporters, plus a similar amount of editors, plus the sports department, plus a Spanish language insert staff, plus a half dozen columnists and I read through all that was pertinent in less than 10 minutes.

The most intelligent pieces were the letters to the editor. The major story from Page One was a three page obit — three full pages plus — of one of their editors who passed away.

No wonder its daily circulation is 117K, or one copy for every 40 people among the 4.6 million residents of Maricopa County. I asked everyone in the bistro who read the paper if they learned anything. They all shook their heads no.