Small-town weeklies and their conflicts

When I go into small towns I often wonder how a publisher could ever avoid uncomfortable conflicts with the few advertisers around. Michael Hiltzik's column in the LAT business section today reports on one doozy of a conflict up the coast in Hollister that was easily avoidable. The owners of the Pinnacle, Hollister's weekly, never should have invested in the local electric car company. When the investment went sour, the chagrined publishers became aggressive critics, and along the way made a bad factual error. Now there's a fine mess.