New Beginning for Newspapers?

[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Joseph T. Hallinan joe.hallinan@wsj.com and Joe Hagan joe.hagan@wsj.com]
A potential sale of Knight Ridder might be the first shoe to drop in the long-talked-about consolidation of the newspaper industry. Newspapers still dominate local news and advertising in many markets. That could attract a company such as Yahoo, which has moved increasingly into original content and would like to develop its local reach. Meanwhile, Google has expressed interest in entering the classified-ad market, where newspapers have deep relationships and continue to play a dominant role. Knight Ridder is part-owner of CareerBuilder, the online classified Web site that competes with Monster.com. Lately, some of the most successful newspaper companies have stayed in the newspaper business by getting out of it. Washington Post Co. and E.W. Scripps Co., for instance, have both diversified into other industries. The Post bought the Kaplan Inc. educational-preparation business, and Scripps got into cable television with HGTV and other ventures.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113098763894087103.html?mod=todays_us_money_and_investing
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