April 14 (Bloomberg) -- I just hope I die before all the newspapers do.
Not to be maudlin or to tempt my creator, but the recession, burdensome debt and the ad-stealing Internet portend the extinction of newspapers I can’t do without.
Tribune Co.’s bankruptcy threatens the future of three papers, the Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun and Chicago Tribune.
Gannett Co., publishers of USA Today and the Des Moines Register, recently slashed its quarterly dividend by 90 percent. The New York Times Co. has discontinued its dividend. Shares of McClatchy Co., owners of the Charlotte Observer and Miami Herald, now trade at 60 cents -- in a class with Fannie Mae, the broken mortgage investor.
My wife Jeannie and I buy three newspapers Monday through Friday and two on Saturday and Sunday. What would we do during and after breakfast without them? Don’t tell me that we’ll have our computers propped open on the kitchen table to read news on Web sites.
More from David Pauly
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