Paper Cuts: Subscriber Sues Over Reduced Staff, Content

HERE AT OFF/BEAT we often pick on frivolous and/or absurd lawsuits, but I'd like to take this opportunity to compliment a lawsuit that, while absurd, is so perfectly ironic that I have to tip my hat.

The newspaper industry is shrinking, and journalists powerless to do anything — but lawyers apparently are not. The News & Observer reports that Keith Hempstead, a Durham lawyer and loyal reader, is suing the newspaper for cutting the size of its staff and the quantity of content.

Hempstead claims he was defrauded since the paper announced its downsizing only after he had renewed his subscription in May. He filed his suit last month in Wake Co. Superior court, alleging that the June 16 cuts violated his contract with N&O by giving him a product that is worth less than it had been.

"I hate to see what companies that run newspapers are doing to the product," Hempstead, a former reporter himself, was quoted saying. "The idea that taking the most important product and reducing the amount of news and getting rid of staff to me seems pointless to how you should run a newspaper business."

Although he could simply cancel his subscription, Hempstead wanted to make a point. He hopes that his lawsuit will make N&O rethink its business model. And while suing the paper he loves may ultimately do more damage to it than than good, his timing and sense of irony couldn't be better.

Already an anonymous washingtonpost.com senior editor dubbed him "reader of the year." I'd like to take it step further and recognize Keith Hempstead for filing this year's "most timely" lawsuit. And given the state of the newspaper business, we can only hope he gets class action status.

Photo by Staff/The Washington Post