Vin Crosbie posted what could only be called a major treatise on the decline of the news industry. I’m honestly still dissecting it.  The main point appears to come down to this being a case of slow suicide, rather than murder by internet.

However, an examination of data shows that their online editions are read by fewer people — and less often and less frequently — than the dying print or broadcast editions. Moreover, ten years into these efforts, the online editions are earning only one-twentieth to one-hundredth per user what the dying print edition earns per reader.

or citing Bob Cauthorn

“Even the dairy industry spends more on research and development than the newspaper industry does. And milk doesn’t face anything like the new forms of competition that newspapers do.”

or quoting the State of the News Media 2006 report:

At many old-media companies, though not all, the decades-long battle at the top between idealists and accountants is now over. The idealists have lost.

Vin also links to this article from Former Knight-Ridder op-ed writer Alvaro Vargas, well worth reading in it’s own right.