Hard problems to solve

A drop here, a decline there -- what's next? Newspaper businesses completely disappearing? Unfortunately, the newspaper print business' insane loss of circulation numbers isn't surprising to anyone.

A Newspaper Association of America (NAA) analysis of data on 770 newspapers released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations found that average daily circulation fell 2.8 percent to about 43.8 million copies for the six months ended Sept. 30, compared with the same period a year ago.

Luckily, a glimmer of positive light can still be seen in the midst of all this darkness.

The group added that total newspaper readership is rising, when Web site use, sharing papers and other measures are included. The NAA has been emphasizing more positive total readership numbers than paid circulation figures over the last few years.

Newspapers are gaining more readers with more viewers turning to the Internet to get their news, but they still face the problem of revenue. One solution would be to charge readers for online news, but I see this as a "Catch 22". Readers will disappear just as quickly as they first surfaced with the ever-so-popular Internet, which will leave the newspaper company in complete detriment.