Even NBC Nightly News has finally caught on to the certain death of the daily newspaper industry. Last night, Brian Williams and NBC Nightly News ran a story on the rapid decline of the dailies and the almost certain death towards which they are marching. The story focused on the Palm Beach papers and the recent staff cuts (300) as well as the Chicago Tribune and the announcements that the company is selling its landmark real estate holdings as well as Wrigley Field and the Cubs.
The story did present a counter argument in the form of Mort Zuckerman who has the luxury of publishing a tabloid paper in the nation’s largest metro market (so his rebuttal almost doesn’t count). So although it tried to present as balanced a perspective as it could, there is little doubt that the fact that it was being covered by NBC Nightly News means that the demise of the dailies has inched another step further down the spectrum of inevitability and mainstream coverage.