As he usually does, Scott Adams nails both sides of a complex issue while managing to bring hilarity to what is otherwise a pretty grim topic.

In honor of Paul Dailing, I am going to continue to be lazy on occasion and simply dump a pile of stories and headlines into a blog post regarding the death of the daily newspaper (and maybe on the recruitment classified front as well). It continues to be fascinating to me to watch an industry implode, and the story continues to evolve in interesting, educational, and amusing ways. So here are the most recent stories that caught my attention….

• The dailies’ problems may finally be solved! Washington is on the case, and bailout funds may be just around the corner…

• Another ‘Innovate or Die’ story (and some even have a decent idea or 2)

• John Henry, owner of the Red Sox, likes newspapers but only because they’re important to his baseball franchise. Strange timing that the New York Times (which owns the Boston Globe) is also looking to sell its stake in the Red Sox to generate some liquidity

• McClatchy is at risk of being delisted from the NYSE

• Winning the ‘No Shit’ award for the decade, Sam Zell declares that his acqusition of The Tribune Company was a mistake

• The idea of generating micro-payment revenue for newspaper content gains steam  with new venture Journalism Online

• Yahoo prepares HotJobs for eventual sale

• Shareholders of The New York Times are at risk of being seriously diluted….and there was also an excellent, excellent story about Arthur Sulzberger in the current issue of Vanity Fair

• The Cincinnati Enquirer is cutting the number of days that it runs classifieds

• The web tops newspapers as a source for news (didn’t this happen in like 2002?). Guess not….

• Newspapers are selling buildings to raise cash, but no one is buying….

Avista Capital Partners, owners of the Star Tribune, announced this morning that they did not make their quarterly interest payment on the $96 million in junior debt that accompanied the roughly $330 million in senior debt used to finance the $530 million purchase of the daily newspaper. While CEO Chris Harte reported that the company has sufficient cash to make the interest payment, he stated that they chose not to make the payments as the company works through renegotiations on the terms and structure of the debt and the entire balance sheet. While Harte’s comments may or may not be accurate, the daily is most certainly now in default on a meangful portion of its debt and is one step closer to insolvency.

In the race with Chicago to see which metro market loses its daily first, Minneapolis has clearly taken a sizeable lead. Interestingly, just as Tribune’s fate might depend on the success of the Cubs and the value that that franchise might fetch in the market with cash proceeds being used to pay down debt, the Star Tribune’s fate is similarly tied to the Minnesota Vikings who are eyeing the paper’s land holdings in downtown Minneapolis on which they are exploring building a new stadium. Who would have thought that the demise of two prominent dailies could be such a ’sporting’ event.