The Bad News Won't Stop

And we can only keep reporting them. The US newspaper industry keeps circling the drain, the bad news lining up like in an old Big Depression photo.

The Rocky Mountain News, Colorado's oldest newspaper founded in 1859, will publish its last edition tomorrow, Feb. 27.

Its parent company, E.W. Scripps Co., reported it was unable to find a buyer for a paper that lost $16 million last year, the victim of the current recession, tumbling ad revenue and lost readers to the Internet.

The Associated Press:

Four owners of 33 U.S. daily newspapers have sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the past 2 1/2 months. A number of other newspapers are up for sale.

This past weekend, there were separate bankruptcy filings by New Haven (Connecticut) Register publisher Journal Register Co. and by the owners of The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News.

They followed a December filing by Tribune Co., whose media stable includes the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, and January's filing by the owners of the Star Tribune in Minneapolis. Other publishers could seek bankruptcy protection in the coming months, too, as advertising prospects for 2009 remain bleak.

Hearst Corp. announced earlier this week it will close or sell the San Francisco Chronicle if it can't reduce expenses dramatically within the next few weeks. Last month, Hearst laid out plans to close the Seattle Post-Intelligencer if a buyer isn't found before April. And Gannett Co. is looking for a buyer for the Tucson Citizen in Arizona.

There is more. The Los Angeles Times, the nation's fourth largest newspaper, will eliminate 300 jobs and one of its sections.

It's non-stop. We are witnessing one of the pillars of the American democracy crumbling before our very eyes. We just hope this is not an end but a transformation.