The newspapers have been in trouble for a long time. Paper costs continue to rise, as well as distribution costs - trucks need fuel, after all - and newspapers are advertiser-driven. If advertisers decide to spend their dollars elsewhere - or run out of dollars to spend, the subscriptions don't cover even half the cost of printing and distributing the newspaper, never mind paying reporters and editors and staff.

Maybe some papers will still exist in a once-a-week form - I buy the Sunday paper some weeks, but do not have - and never have had - the daily paper delivered.

There is a weekly paper that comes to my house for free, and it often goes right into the recycling - it just isn't where I get my "news" most of the time.

Caveat: I used to work for the local newspaper, in the advertising production department.