And so the death watch watch continues. With the New York Times on the edge, and with Philadelphia Newspapers LLC, which owns The Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News and Philly.com, and Tribune Co., publisher of the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, more newspapers look like going under. Add to that the news that Hearst is planning to close or sell its San Francisco Chronicle newspaper unless it can cut more jobs. Pity the Chronicle reporters who had to file this report.

Unfortunately, it's going to get worse. As the Financial Times reported at the end of last year, Deloitte has put out research showing that the writing is on the wall for newspapers. The answer doesn't lie in online newspapers because they don't produce anywhere near the profit once enjoyed by print. Cutting staff is not the answer, according to that report. A better, if no less painful, solution might lie in reducing the frequency of the publication. If you want print, you might need to wait until the weekend.

Writing in The Times last year, mega blogger Andrew Sullivan says newspapers are done for. "You should take a moment to savour the piece of grubby newsprint in your hands this Sunday,'' Sullivan writes. "Because it is going to disappear far sooner than most analysts predict.

This is a significant problem for society because when reporting gets reduced, or is turned more vacuous, it becomes bad for democracy. On the other hand, there is a hunger for real news out there. The question is whether that will be enough to save the newspaper industry from its terrible economics.