The three members of Mount Vision, including author Philip Fradkin, responded in a "Citizen" guest column that their offer was based on an appraisal conducted by the former publisher of a regional weekly newspaper who had studied the "Light"'s books. The group wrote that their offer was for the newspaper's assets, not its liabilities, "...which would have economically sunk any succeeding publication," and that the while the merged paper could not guarantee employment, that decision would have been made by a different organizational structure than their own.