Par Ridder, Blogger?

Par Ridder's favorite film is "Point Break."

Or so says the profile at Par Excellence, a satirical blog written from the Star Tribune publisher's perspective.

The anonymously authored site features the words of "Par," whose writing voice is half clueless optimist, half sans-a-frat fratboy. "Yeah, Calhoun isn't top notch," he writes in a post about Vita.mn's reporting on a swimsuit show it sponsored at Calhoun Beach Club. "But still, hanging out by a pool and getting front row seats to watch swimsuit models kicks ass." In another, titled "Ganging up on me," he writes that if anybody -- including recent Ridder critics Brian Lambert of The Rake or KSTP's Ron Rosenbaum -- "think[s] I got my new job as publisher just because my parents are close to Avista, you're wrong."

And another cites Minnesota Monitor's reporting on Ridder's apparent purchase of the $2.76 million house once owned by former KARE-11 anchor Paul Magers. "It was Magers that added the golf simulator, not me," complains "Ridder."

With a more serious tone is the new website SavetheStrib.com. Run by the Star Tribune's unit of the Minnesota Newspaper Guild, the site features the tagline, "Preserving the role of the Star Tribune in our communitiy." Currently, little more than a home page, it'll eventually have news and bulletins sections. The home page features a statement, signed by Star Tribune employees and readers, decrying the cuts to the newsroom staff, the death of the paper's philanthropic foundation, and shrinking news holes for national and international news.

It seems to suggest a shift in strategy: don't mourn the loss of newsroom jobs; worry about the effect the cuts will mean for all of us -- the community (a word that appears eight times on the home page).

Before encouraging visitors to urge Avista to "make a new commitment to once again make the Star Tribune the great newspaper this community deserves," the site makes a prediction:

We recognize that this is a difficult time for newspapers. But we also believe that the current strategy of deep cuts will accelerate circulation declines and the downward spiral in the newspaper's revenue. It also erodes the checks and balances that a strong newspaper provides the public and our democracy.