The Malaise of a Medium

Locally, we have an example of the impending closing of two small daily newspapers and a collection of weekly newspapers, as reported here and here, as a collection of legislators are exploring ways to possibly save them with state intervention. These papers have suffered through their owners' profit aspirations at the expense of their editorial products (massive staff cuts). The parent company's stock price closed below $.01 per share on Friday.

In the Comments to the second linked article is the gem from Jim:

The newspaper is going the way of the horse and buggy. The internet is the new place for news. However, the impending doom of these newspapers is happening much faster due to the poor quality of these publications. There simply was not enough local coverage. Not enough quality unbiased reporting. The critical factor in keeping these newspapers open longer is creating a strong link to the internet. The Journal Register Co. has failed miserably over the years at this...If the JRC was smart, they would invest (heavily) in their web presence, retain their local reporters, and focus their ad sales on internet sales.

In light of evolving on-line reader preferences and the declining economics of traditional newspaper publishing, on-line citizen journalism, similar to the Westport, CT paper referenced in the Poynter article is a great example to what 21st century community journalism should aspire.