The continued meltdown of the newspaper industry (under the heat of competition from the Internet) continues to accelerate. The news of declining circulation, shrinking ad revenue and 

layoffs at major papers has become so frequent that it almost isn't news anymore. Still I was struck by a couple of things in the latest report of cutbacks regarding the Los Angeles Times that came out today. One was the remarkable scope of their latest retrenchment - 250 jobs cut including 17% of the newsroom staff, plus a 15% reduction in the number of pages printed each week. 

Even more indicative of the unstoppable winds of change at work today, the print and online staffs at the Times are being consolidated into a single editorial department (noted in a 

report on the Times dilemma at MediaPost). The online division of this iconic American newspaper will no longer be the company's red-headed stepchild - recognition that Internet delivery of media is where the action is today and where it increasingly will be tomorrow.  

In a memo to his staff, Times Editor Russ Stanton wrote, "You all know the paradox we find ourselves in. Thanks to the Internet, we have more readers for our great journalism than at any time in our history. But also thanks to the Internet, our advertisers have more choices, and we have less money." 

This migration of traditional media outlets to the Internet is relevant to domains because many of them, especially city geo domains, are the perfect platforms for delivering all kinds of locally relevant media - print, audio and video - from a single, unforgettable Internet address. The owners of many of the best domains in the geo space will gather one week from today in Chicago for the start of the 2008 GeoDomain Expo. We will be there as well.
(Posted July 3, 2008)