'Several Cities' Likely to Have No Paper by 2010

Editor & Publisher has some worrisome news for advocates of the First Amendment.

"Newspapers and newspaper groups are likely to default on their debt and go out of business next year — leaving 'several cities' with no daily newspaper at all, Fitch Ratings says in a report on media released Wednesday," writes Mark Fitzgerald.

"Fitch is generally pessimistic across the board," he continues, "assigning negative outlets to nearly all sectors from Yellow Pages to radio and TV and theme parks. But the newspaper industry is the most at risk of defaulting, it says."

That's bad news for those who believe a culture benefits from the printed word.

With advertising revenues declining and a credit freeze in effect, the recession of 2009 promises to be more severe than the recession of 2001. And, in a world in which more and more people depend on the visual media — TV and the internet — for news and information, newspapers are becoming expendable.

Editor & Publisher also reported today that there will be about 2,000 job cuts at Gannett newspapers across the country — "the result of economic declines," says the vice president of corporate communications.

The cutbacks were announced in October — but exact numbers weren't released at that time.

There is no real freedom without freedom of the press.

But how can freedom be preserved if the press isn't profitable?