A decline in perspective

With each month, newspapers look less like a business and more like a lost cause

was the beginning of the editorial in yesterday's FT.

It's worth a read and puts some of the issues into perspective

The degree to which the travails of papers are a threat to an informed democracy can be exaggerated, particularly by journalists. The internet has made print less profitable but has also made new forms of information-gathering and commentary possible. Bloggers get a bad press but low-cost publishing helps new sources to emerge.

and we should remember that

The profitability of papers in the late 20th century, when they had a monopoly of classified advertising, was an anomaly.

This last point is important.I was tslking to an ex journalist a few days ago who said that profit margins of 20 per cent plus were never going to be sustainable.I reminded him that in my previous existence,we were happy with 5 per cent.