Clearly that kitty is superior, and he will soon takeover the world. He is obviously reading that paper to keep up on human/cat related health issues, and will use this information to put his evil plot into action.

And he'll look so pretty doing it.

@Kimaroo - 20% More Kitty Added!: Yes, he has that "soon, everything will me mine" look on his face :-)

No sympathy here. Newspapers have dug their own grave with their past behavior. To wit:

1) De-contenting the paper. Talk about a shrink ray. Most dailes now are just a giant picture on the first page ,A national story cribbed off the wires and a couple of small stories below the fold. The rest of the front section is usually ads.Not worth anything because the national story is ancient by the time it is printed and the local stuff is written by 20 year olds with ADHD.

2) Classified ads. Craigslist has zoomed past the local paper like an F-16 in what , 5 years ? Local ads are WAYYYYYYYYYY overpriced and forget inserting pictures. It's over for local papers classified departments, they just need to admit it.

3) Monopolies rot from the inside out. Lots of local dailies haven't had real competition in decades. (Which is why there are so many hyphenated banners out there-they bought up their competitors).They had a captive audience and got fat , arrogant and lazy. Advertisers were screwed because of the "only game in town" mentality.Now , payback's a bitch and they can't compete.

4) Alternative sources are getting better and better and more professional. Newspaper moguls pooh-poohed the rise of "alternative media" (Talk Radio , free weekly papers and online sites) and now many ,if not most computer savvy people get their news from other sources than newspapers .(The Drudge Report broke the Monica Lewisnky story after several traditional outlets passed). We are watching a paradigm shift and its fascinating.

5) Large newspaper chains borrowed too much money during the easy money days of the early and mid 90's and now they can't pay it back. They are too broke to invest in their core franchise and as a result , they are beating a path to bankruptcy court. Stupid business decisions are not limited to the banking industry.

Now. None of these points address the editorial slant of any of these papers.There is a school of thought on both the right and left that the papers are too liberal/too conservative and that is why they are fading. I'm sure that enters into it in some way ,but the points above would probably be fatal no matter what the papers politics were.

@Snarkysnake: Wow, couldn't have said it better myself. If I had not already clicked your heart icon I would have after this.

I like the paper, particularly the lazy Sunday morning flipping through the glossy ads. My local paper, Sunday edition, is $2 at a drug store or news box (recently raised). For me to pre-pay for 7 days a week delivery, it's also only $2. At my house, M-F editions typically get glanced at and tossed directly into the recycle bin. They get their circulation numbers up with me and I get a cheap price, the daily advertisers lose though because I'm rarely looking at the daily editions. I'm expecting the ad revenue to trickle off and we'll see what happens. Might be interesting.

one reason that ad revenue is also down from years before is that all the companies out there gobbled up other companies. so while the paper may have had in previous years ads from filenes and ads from macys on 2-3 pages (for each retailer) now it's down to 2-3 pages for just macys. and i think some banking institutions got gobbled up by other ones, airlines, movie theaters, etc etc.

i recently started subscribing to the boston globe, because i like to read a physical paper. but seriously, the customer service (or lack thereof) is driving me bonkers. took them 3 extra days to start delivery, they auto billed without giving me notice as to when the billing date is.

@Kimaroo - 20% More Kitty Added!: Not only that, but he's gleefully reading how their nefarious plans to interfere with humans' pregnancy are coming to fruition.
Soon all the smooth apes will be Taxo-Zombies, existing solely to serve felinekind!

(Well, even more so than how it is now)

@Snarkysnake: To be fair, though, the other news outlets didn't pass on the Lewinski, they were trying to confirm it before unleashing allegations.

Local newspapers are probably still the cheapest way for small, local businesses to advertise. However, I would assume at this point in time that the age of the target advertising audience for a newspaper is way beyond the average age that most advertisers are trying to reach.

@Snarkysnake: Monday morning Quarterback skills intact; check.

A huge reason that 71% of the advertisers stuck around is because they were cut great deals, wayyyy below any rate cards. Funny that they didn't mention this.

Is it true that the 71% all consists of personal ads?

@changed my name: Hm, I agree. In my rural midwest hometown, companies don't advertise with commercials for TV (even bad quality ones must be expensive) or ads on buses that don't exist -- they make their presence known through community events and the local newspaper. But, I would add that many people move back to their rural hometowns after they're older and have a family, and middle-aged incomes are much higher than that of 20-somethings, so perhaps they are reaching their target audience after all.

At that rate, next year advertising revenue will be half of what it was last year.

When you talk about big national and international news, yeah, the newspaper is worthless. A day late and a dollar short.

BUT...

The newspapers are still the only decent way to get local and regional news when you live outside of big cities. My paper has shrunk quite a bit, but it's still full of news about local and regional politics, crime and business. I also get a free weekly newspaper targeted to my town alone for even more local information.

When I try to find local news online, the only consistent source is... you guessed it... my newspaper's website.

TV? The only time the closest TV station is interested in my town is when it's sensational (blood or sex). I don't know how my town council voted watching the 5 o'clock news.

@edebaby:

"Monday morning Quarterback skills intact; check."

Okay , make me look the fool. Refute. I would love to read a scholarly countervailing opinion.

@Snarkysnake: Speaking as a newspaper employee, I'll say that the "decontenting" is caused by newspaper workers being laid off and forced out of the industry. (More than half of my department is now gone.) Newspapers these days are being submerged by the less reliable content of blogs and politically biased news of the shall-remain-nameless networks. Our readers are getting older and more politically conservative as younger liberally minded readers flee to the web for more interactive content. The Internet has hurt a number of industries, including music, movies, cable TV, and yes, news. As for advertising, the 71 percent is deceptive as many of those lost are the biggest clients such as large department stores, real estate firms and auto dealers. We're not the only industry looking for a new business model in this new age. Still, I think newspapers will be around a bit longer.

@scoopjones:

Okay , you're the first to do it. By "it" , I mean blame the reader for demanding more than you are providing. If people are being laid off and there is less original content in the paper ,it's less desirable. Can't blame the reader for wanting a quarters worth of news for their quarter.

Then we reached the crux of the matter...You will remember that in my first post I avoided using editorial bias as a reason that the cancellation staffs at the big dailies are pretty busy. But you as much as admit that your content is aimed at a liberal ,young audience. If you exclude roughly half of the potential customer base because you are "standing up for your principles!" ,then don't be surprised when that half up and leaves. (Just to clarify - I am on neither side. Liberals are full o' shit. Conservatives are full o' shit).

And frankly , this whole notion that blogs and networks and other content providers are "less reliable" is...Full o' shit. The New York Times has published whole series of investigative pieces that were just made up.Pulitzer prizes have been awarded and then redacted because the stories didn't stand up to the light of day.It damn sure wasn't the Old Gray Lady that exposed the fabricated "documents" aimed at George Bush in 2004 by CBS. It was bloggers. To be sure , bloggers with an axe to grind,but their work was factually accurate.

Finally , newspapers helped create the right (and left) wing nutcases that have obtained a following in the blogosphere and on talk radio and cable TV. If their coverage was fair and balanced ,we wouldn't need FOX to tell us that theirs is. When everbody claims to create balance ,nobody does. This is a monster of their own making.Newspapers WILL be around a lot longer (like AM radio,they serve a purpose), but the days of them telling us what is "news" is over.

@cameronl: Thank you for bringing this up, I have heard plenty of the doom and gloom coming the way of the newspapers because I actually work at one (GASP!). I just am not sure people realize that if all newspaper goes away a lot of areas, especially smaller towns are going to have a hard time getting local news. I dont even want to bother with tv news stations, especially in this area.

I work in the online department and our paper has a really well established website that is probably the highest traffic website in our whole region. If you have the content people want you can still do really good, common sense right! I would love to see most if not all newspapers transition to be online only at some point in the future. Online obviously is the superior format for news but I think a lot of people miss the point that something really important could be lost if newspapers just go away completely. I would much rather see a transition like our paper from print to online.

It is true that there are some real desperation moves being played by newspapers in general, but why is that a surprise to anyone? You wouldn't just let your own company rot and die without a fight, right?

Again I am just keeping my fingers crossed that the "death" of the newspaper is less of a ending and more of a transition!