Metro, the San Jose alt-weekly, caught up with ex-Mercury News columnist Dan Gillmor (pictured) and asked him a lot of questions about blogs, blogging, the blogosphere, etc. Perhaps the most interesting exchange in the Q&A was at the end.

Metro: You famously suggested that Yahoo buy the Mercury News. Why do you think no local bidders came to the table?

Gillmor: Famously? The L.A. Times said (paraphrasing) that the suggestion sank almost without a trace. I can’t judge others’ motives. But I’d guess that the valley powers-that-be (the real ones) consider the local newspaper business uninteresting if not ridiculous.

I do think it’s a shame that Tony Ridder obeyed his lawyers (OK, he had little choice) when they basically ordered him not to pursue a local buyout of the Merc while the Knight Ridder sale was under way.