Face it - there has been a very quiet, but effective revolution in this country and it has been the transfer of advertising, particlularly classified advertising, from newspapers to the internet. Even 10 years ago the newspapers carried pages of items for sale, all of which is now on Craigslist. The newspapers made a boatload of money from that advertising, a revenue stream that has all but disappeared for them. THAT REVENUE IS GONE FOREVER!

Additionally, if you can get most of the newspaper content on the internet, why buy the paper? I think the newspapers made a big mistake by giving it away for free initially, but now they have to. It is their way of capturing part of that internet advertising dollar.