As newspapers are retrenching, reorganizing and cutting staff, one of the concerns is the loss of individual voices - particularly that of critics.

Over on my Movie Cricket blog, I've chronicled the loss of film-critic jobs across the country. Similar losses have been felt among TV critics, book critics and music critics, too.

The Music Critics Association of North America is circulating a letter (which industry blogger Jim Romenesko posted) to newspaper editors, begging them to keep classical-music critics on the payroll.

The letter cites several papers - the Seattle Times, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the Kansas City Star and the Miami Herald - where the classical music critics took buyouts, were laid off or were reassigned. The group laments these decisions, as well as what it sees as a devaluing of the critical voice:

"Critics -- not just classical music critics, of course -- play an essential role in the artistic process, which involves an ongoing cycle of creation and reaction. But they typically do much more than write reviews. They produce a steady flow of feature stories and hard news, trend pieces, analyses and more... . They also serve, in effect, as consumer guides, helping people make decisions about how they spend or donate their money. Only a local paper can provide this benefit. And employing a staff critic sends a strong, clear message that the local paper recognizes the true value and newsworthiness of classical music in the community."

The problem, though, is that this particular ship has sailed. When the cutbacks started, the classical-music beat was among the first to go.

The Salt Lake Tribune has been without a full-time classical music critic for years. Currently the work is split between ace copy editor Catherine Reese Newton and some free-lancers.

The Tribune's arts-and-entertainment staff has six writers - a movie critic/columnist, me; TV critic Vince Horiuchi; pop-music critic David Burger; food writer Kathy Stephenson (food is a form of entertainment, apparently); and two general-assignment arts writers, Julie Checkoway (who has an emphasis on visual arts) and Roxana Orellana (whose main, but not only, beat is theater). And we're charged not only with writing reviews, but also blogs, previews, features and the occasional hard-news story. Oh, and we have to sweep up afterwards.