This is my response to a story by CBS-TV about a list of 10 declining industries, which included newspapers.


Interesting this CBS-TV list didn't include broadcast television. Have you noticed how people are fleeing the broadcast networks? They did great in 2010, an election year. All that political advertising made them temporarily flush. Cable, satellite, computer, mobile TV and the spectacular fragmentation of the audience that go along with them are eating broadcast TV's lunch.

Full disclosure. I'm the editor at the Missouri Press Association, the newspaper trade group in the state. While the bad economy has hit newspapers like a sledge -- just like other businesses -- you'll have a difficult time convincing 250 community newspaper publishers in Missouri that the newspaper industry is "on the verge of extinction." Is just isn't so. I wish digital snobs would quit saying it, and I wish newspapers would quit printing stories about them saying it.