I'm home for the weekend, and its good to remember there is life outside the halls of academia and untouched by the cut-throat, demanding pressures of the real world. I'm from Fredericksburg, VA and I'm at the kitchen table ready the Sunday edition of the Free Lance-Star. If you did or didn't notice, the paper's website address managed to commandeer the name of the small colonial city of a downtown that is Fredericksburg, home of an important battle in the Civil War. It's as if the owners of the paper (and the local radio stations) are royal governors of all adjoining lands.

No, we don't have power struggles down here in the old country, and we most certainly do not have old money here in these parts.

The paper once upon a long time ago was actually two local papers: "The Free Lance" and "The Daily Star" until they were merged at the turn of the 20th Century. It's fascinating to see how some traditions develop to become integral in the area culture. I grew up with "The Free Lance-Star" - not knowing of anything else until I saw a copy of the Washington Post in middle school.

I thinks its time for some competitive business to shake them from their lethargic, conservative stance.

The significant difference between many papers and others such as the 'Free Lance' is that the majority of the articles in the latter are pulled from other sources (with the exception of the regional section of the paper). Helen Thomas works for one such company that licenses papers around the country to print their journalism.