Based in Sydney, Australia, Foundry is a blog by Rebecca Thao. Her posts explore modern architecture through photos and quotes by influential architects, engineers, and artists.

How many people complained about racial justice coverage?

To the Editor,

I am responding to Pete Prown’s letter in the May 28 issue, “Publishing requires revenue and compromise.”

I completely agree that publishers have a right to create revenue and make business decisions on that basis. There really is no way around this basic imperative.

I wrote two letters to the publishers recently, asking two questions: 1. Was the decision to reduce the number of social justice stories in the paper really a “business decision”?  2. If so, I would like to know how the publishers concluded that those who were upset about these stories were of sufficient number to pose a financial threat to the newspaper. Was there a survey of the readers, or a calculation of the number of complaints as a percentage of total readership, for example? If there are, in fact, enough readers in town who are this upset, then Swarthmore really is in trouble, proving Satya Nelms’ point.

I never received a response to my letters, and the publishers do not address this business issue in their May 13 statement. I would still like to know the answers to these questions and remain hopeful that I will receive them. However, having not heard back thus far, I have cancelled my subscription of more than 30 years with regret and sadness.

Tom Callaghy
Swarthmore

Making people uncomfortable can be good

What happened to transparency?