Losses To Journal Sentinel Staff Diminish The Public Debate

Michael Horne's listing and analysis of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's class of early retirees is pretty well done.

Whitney Gould is the most prominent lost voice in the paper's cost-cutting round of buyouts.

Few writers nationally, and none locally, had her authoritative presence on design and environment. No doubt the owners of Pabst Farms and their allies at the Wisconsin Department of Transportation are ecstatic. The rest of us will miss her.

Greg Stanford was always a favorite of mine. I liked his writing, his style, his view of the world and of newspapers. We were both from Washington, DC, so we could talk DC sports and history.

He became a genuine Milwaukee asset. He'll be missed.

Also among the big loses: the departure of Barbara Dembski, who was not as well known publicly, but was a power at the paper with many top jobs on her resume.

A true professional, she made Crossroads a much better section. David Haynes is certainly a capable replacement, and he inherits an important part of the paper.

Many of the other departing once-ink-stained wretches were colleagues and friends from the old Journal, like Dennis McCann and Bob Riepenhoff. Dave Doege was a Sentinel guy whom I got to know better after the merger - - another real pro.

I wish them all well, and as I have told some of them already, there is life and freedom after the newsroom.

Enjoy it.