Newspapers Dead Since 1918, Still Dying

Katherine Mangu-Ward | April 20, 2009

In today's morning links, Jesse Walker linked an essay fretting about the future of the newspaper industry from 1918. The essay discusses the rapid consolidation, and the decreasing number of cities with multiple papers, or morning and evening editions: 

And from today over at the Pew Research Center:

Comments

Taktix®|4.20.09 @ 11:23AM|#

So there's only 39 newspaper readers left in 2008?

No wonder they're going under...

Citizen Nothing|4.20.09 @ 11:27AM|#

And they all read The Family Circus first.

Brett Stevens|4.20.09 @ 11:28AM|#

Not only that, FreeBSD is dying.

NetCraft confirms it!

BakedPenguin|4.20.09 @ 11:39AM|#

A friend of mine who lived in the Cape Verde Islands told me that they used to have pr0n pictures inside some of the newspapers there when he was growing up there.

I was going to make a "thinking outside the box" joke, but that would be too bad, even for me.

ed|4.20.09 @ 11:48AM|#

Huh. 5+4=9. If only newspapers would be so helpful with complicated charts.

|4.20.09 @ 2:02PM|#

It's kind of funny that when the newspapers finally stop getting printed, only the people who get news from other sources will know why.

LarryA|4.20.09 @ 4:13PM|#

I think the main reason city newspapers are folding is the "journalists are impartial" philosophy. You don't need two city newspapers covering the same news the same way.

I remember when the San Antonio Light and Express-News were in their death match. The two big differences between them was the size of their Wingo Bingo prize and which syndicated comic strips they carried.

After the Light folded the people who owned it bought the Express-News. Change in ownership made absolutely no difference in the newspaper's content.

|4.21.09 @ 2:49AM|#

I really wanted to link the "imminent death syndrome" sketch from Mr. Show, but I couldn't find it on Youtube.