Final Deadline Looms for U.S.A.'s Newspapers

By Dan Gainor
The Boone Pickens Free Market Fellow
Business & Media Institute

Once newspapers were the answer to the riddle: “What is black and white and read all over?” They’re no longer just black and white, but they are red all over. Red ink spills off nearly every page onto balance sheets across America.

The newspaper business is bleeding to death. Hidden amidst the other obits at the back of the Metro section should be “R.I.P. American Newspapers b. 1690 d. Soon – from self-inflicted wounds.” On Feb. 15, the Baltimore Examiner becomes the latest sad casualty of an industry racing headlong to its death.

It is not something to celebrate. For all of its many faults, the news industry is essential to our democracy and newspapers have been the best and most comprehensive examples of journalism for 300 years. But it is a death brought on by hubris and incompetence on the part of too many in the news media – from top to bottom. Now the rest of us might end up paying for it. [Read more]