Newspaper collapse continues

Nothing new in the latest circulation report, which could be summarized as "situation bad, getting worse -- again."

A few papers scraped out tiny increases, but most took hits -- some bad and some terrible. And then there's the Dallas Morning News, circulation down 14.3%. It's not easy to lose that much business in just one year.

The drop at DMN at least diverted attention from the continuing horror story that is the Los Angeles Times. The Times lost another 4.2% on top of their other recent losses. It's interesting to note that a few years ago, the LA Times had almost caught the NY Times and looked set to become the country's biggest metro daily. Now, even though the NYT is also losing cirulation, the LAT is more than 300,000 behind. In fact, another year like this one, and the LAT will drop into third place, behind the New York Post.

The Post, despite all the sneers it gets from the elite, is doing something right. It's the only paper to show a significant increase -- up 7.6% -- and has passed its tabloid rival, the Daily News.

Once again, for trade marketers the question is -- what do you do when your principal advertising medium implodes?