The Times for Newspapers

Everyone knows these are tough times for the newspaper industry. Layoffs, bankruptcies and closures are a part of the everyday vocabulary of the newsroom. So is voluntary buyouts. At my paper, The Austin American-Statesman, they have been a lot of people taking the voluntary buyout. One such person is the Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Ben Sargent. I think his video farewell is a nice statement on the purpose of newspapers:



This week also had the list of 10 papers that are the "doomsday list". I think the best blog about the newspaper industry is Reflections of
Newsosaur by Alan Mutter. Mr. Mutter has a great take on the "doomsday list" here.

The New York Times had a piece on the state of newspapers and a great map showing the locations of some of the trouble spots, circulation and revenue information for the major newspaper companies. At least for the Statesman, the blurb is positive:

It has attracted several potential buyers, an extremely rare phenomenon these days.