As newspapers once again report declines in circulation, there's a natural tendancy to view it as yet more evidence that print is faltering in the face of the Internet. But that's not quite right. There's another story at work here: the collapse of the too-big, but not quite national, newspapers. That's a story of content and its relationship with a changing marketplace.
There's no question that ink on paper has painful limitations in a world where we expect immediacy and interaction. But I think it's significant that the Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Boston Globe and other traditionally "great" supermetro newspapers are at the top of the list of those suffering major circulation declines. Newspapers that are clearly local, or clearly national, are less affected.