While everyone wants to talk about newspapers dying, and certainly there are long term issues they must deal with, the reality is the problems at the Tribune and Sun-Times are not all about losing readership–they are about debt. In the Sun-Times case, Conrad Black left a $600 million bill with the IRS unpaid. Otherwise, the Sun-Times does not have crippling debt.
On the other hand, the bankruptcy of the Tribune Company is based largely on Sam Zell’s reign of terror and the debt he took on in acquiring the Tribune.
Again, not to dismiss the challenges papers are facing from a loss of advertising dollars, but the Chicago case shows two papers that would be in reasonable financial condition if their owners had treated the assetts as long term investments and not piggy banks to raid for short term gain.
Atrios pointed to this post by Athenae along similar lines.
Maybe the non-profit model is the way to go — either that or have some kind of Sugar Daddy behind the thing.