Editorials, letters, columns, cartoons, endorsements and other forms of commentary are increasingly disappearing from America’s community newspapers. In fact, entire opinion sections are disappearing in all too many places, a sign the rest of the newspapers may soon follow.
Newspapers with a national reach, well-defined niche and/or massive home base, prominent examples including The New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal, seem to have found sufficient footing in today’s digital-first world.
But papers serving more limited and localized constituencies have gradually become perilously diminished and endangered, assuming they have not already succumbed. The driving force is a virtual vacuum of the printed classified, display and insert advertising that once accounted for upward of 80% of newspaper revenue.
