• Media Life, Monday, March 20, 2006 11 AM

If even well-managed, award-winning newspapers can't thrive in the current business climate, what does that portend for lesser papers? That's a question asked by Media Life, an online media magazine, in the wake of staff cuts last week at The Washington Post.  The Post, one of the country's preeminent papers by any standard, has been hit hard by newsprint costs, declining readership, and competition from other newspapers in the region.  "Analyst John Morton says what the Post is experiencing is in some ways typical, the result of online publications taking a bigger bite out of print newspapers. He does not see that changing.'Generally speaking, their circulation will continue to decline,' Morton says.'I don’t know that there’s any solution.' What makes the Post unusual is that its circulation is sinking faster than that of many other newspapers around the country." And Morton admits he doesn't see any obvious end point for the Post's slide.

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