The prognosis is looking bleak for newspapers. Whereas last year it seemed like some two-paper towns might be affected, experts are now suggesting that some single-paper markets could lose their paper, becoming no-paper markets. That’s partly because several newspapers have been put up for sale — but there are no takers, even after months.
Even Joel Kramer, former editor and publisher of The Star Tribune and now the chief executive of MinnPost.com, an online news org, said this to the New York Times’ Richard Perez-Pena: “It would be a terrible thing for any city for the dominant paper to go under, because that’s who does the bulk of the serious reporting. Places like us would spring up,” he said, “but they wouldn’t be nearly as big. We can tweak the papers and compete with them, but we can’t replace them.”
Check out the article, “As Cities Go From Two Papers to One, Talk of Zero.” It’s especially worthwhile to check out the accompanying graphic, “Bad News for Newspapers.”