Reader: Why did Courant publish biz section on Wednesday?

Hartford Courant reader representative Karen Hunter placed a letter on her blog from a reader who wondered why the Connecticut paper published a business section on Wednesday.

The reader wrote, “Every article but one carried an Associated Press byline; the exception was a piece about a personal concierge that belonged in the Life section. It was ironic that one of the AP articles was about the L.A. Times editor fired by The Tribune Company for refusing to eliminate staff (and, in his opinion, compromise the newspaper’s ability to report the news). The Tribune is The Courant’s parent company, and its push to drive down costs is especially evident in our local paper’s business section.

“Hartford is home to huge financial services companies and to other successful national and global companies, like United Technologies. Most of UTC’s multi-billion dollar divisions are headquartered in Connecticut, four of them within 10 miles of The Courant’s own offices. Many readers of The Courant are investors in our area’s corporations, and thousands more are employees and their neighbors. That The Courant business section can make it through any day without reporting at least one meaningful local business story says much about the entire newspaper’s rush toward irrelevance.

“More coverage of such savvy companies as The Aetna and UTC, for example, would also provide an important business lesson to The Courant and its cut-at-all-costs parent: There are ways to reduce costs without compromising services to your customers and tanking your share price.”

Ouch. Read more here.