[Cowperson]

Too bad but they've always seemed like a folly, never profitable.

Newspapers throughout North America continue to be under stress as the way people receive their news is shifting dramatically.

In the USA, if I'm not mistaken, there were figures announced a few days ago indicating overall subscriptions among the top ten USA papers were down 10% year over year.

Large newspapers do receive high hit counts on their websites, indicating readership is there, but they've never been able to translate that interest into useable dollars.

Truthfully, technology has changed the landscape such that the typical consumer in North America has never had greater access to a wider variety of news sources than is the case today.

But that landscape is so fractured that no one can make money at it or new fangled sources like The Huffington Post or, for want of another example, Calgarypuck, rely on largely free content instead of paying for it.

Some news sources like FOX and MSNBC have compensated by accepting the marketplace as it is and living by the thought that people will gravitate towards news sources that lean towards an opinion they already agree with . . . . . hence FOX with its high ratings on the right wing and lately, MSNBC's unabashed run to the left where it's ratings are starting to finally gain some traction. The warm blanket.

Smaller, local newspapers still seem to be thriving because they deliver the community news that major institutions cannot.

Cowperson