News and Tribune eliminates Sunday, adds Monday, calls it "robust." I call it very bad writing.

I guess that's what happens when advertising salespeople pretend to be journalists in a society where too few people can tell the difference, which makes me feel for the genuine, trained journalists who must listen to people like me pontificate, when their publishers evidently don't read the paper, anyway, or else they would not foist tripe like this on us in the guise of news.

Seriously, real journalists don't write ad copy like this unless derringers wrapped in pink slips are pointed at their heads -- do they?

The News and Tribune will launch a Weekend edition Saturday and also begin publication of a Monday edition starting Monday, publisher Bill Hanson announced Wednesday.

The Weekend edition will feature the combined content of the current Saturday and Sunday publications and will be delivered by mail on Saturdays. It will be available at area retail outlets and newspaper racks starting Saturday morning and into Sunday.

“We are combining two already strong newspapers into one even more robust product — as well as adding a Monday newspaper many subscribers have been asking for,” Hanson said.

Then comes the inevitable, albeit it delayed, punch line:

The Monday paper — like the rest of the week — will be delivered the same day by the U.S. Postal Service. The News and Tribune will not publish a paper on federal holidays because there is no mail delivery.

Reckon that's the real dollars and cents reason for all the smoke, mirrors and bull feces, right?

Another bottom line decision from the Retirement Systems of Alabama, just like the one that has deprived New Albany of its local newspaper for the first time since before the Civil War.

Well, I can speak only for myself and the missus.

I've persisted as a subscriber solely because of the Sunday edition, being an old fart and actually enjoying the feel and smell of newsprint with coffee on a lazy morning off. Hanson's "robust" explanation quite simply is a contrived insult to the intelligence of any thinking human, especially New Albany's newspaper readers, who already are the major losers in the pension fund-driven "combining" of newspaper operations.

Lest the point be raised: Editor Shea Van Hoy has explained to me in detail the reason for my column no longer appearing, and although it's disappointing, I respect both him and the reasoning behind the decision. This is not about that, because I had no intention of dropping my subscription until Wednesday's announcement.

Now, there's no choice. Anyone want to start a newspaper?