It is hard to avoid the conclusion that newspapers, at least in their printed form, are dying out. True, almost half of US adults still read a daily newspaper, but that figure is down from more than 80 per cent in 1964. The most obvious impact has been on local competition: a century ago, nearly 700 US cities had more than one daily paper; now, only about a dozen still enjoy the privilege. And this year has already seen the loss of the print editions of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Denver's Rocky Mountain News and the Citizen of Tucson.
我们很难回避这样一种结论：报纸——至少是以印刷形式存在的报纸——正在灭绝。诚然，美国仍有约半数成年人阅读日报，但与1964年的逾80%相比，比例已有所下降。地方报业竞争受到的冲击最为明显：一个世纪以前，近700个美国城市拥有一份以上的日报；如今，只有十几个城市依然享有这种特权。今年，《西雅图邮讯报》(Seattle Post-Intelligencer)、丹佛市的《落基山新闻》(Rocky Mountain News)以及《图森公民报》(Citizen of Tucson) 都已停止发行印刷版。