Last week, San Jose newspaper publishing company Knight-Ridder was purchased by another company, McClatchy. McClatchy then decided it didn't want to keep publishing the hometown newspaper of the company it had just purchased, the San Jose Mercury News, and put it up for sale. If the Merc News can't find a buyer, it may be forced to go under.

The Merc News is a great paper putting out hard-hitting local journalism, and it would be a shame to see it go under. A couple of buyers have expressed interest, but readers and writers have expressed concerns that the interested parties will kill off the good qualities of the Merc. So the Merc News employees (and employees at other papers being sold off by McClatchy) are banding together -- they may try to buy the papers themselves.

Also, the Merc News folks have launched a website, Save The Merc, to encourage a "news-friendly" organization to purchase the paper and keep high-quality journalism alive in the South Bay. It's not the best-designed website in the world, but the sincerity of the effort is totally real. Click here to lend your support to the Merc News journalists.