We're Doomed

"'[M]ore newspapers and newspaper groups will default, be shut down and be liquidated in 2009, and several cities could go without a daily print newspaper by 2010,' the Chicago-based credit ratings firm Fitch Ratings said in a report on the outlook for U.S. media and entertainment released Wednesday."

Does this mean that by this time next year The Register will be regarded the same way as opera houses and sports franchises--as a status symbols that "important" cities/counties need in order to be seen as relevant? Hell, we've already lost The Angels to LA. And the economic crunch already swallowed Opera Pacific's 2008-2009 season after only one production due to a drop in donations. 

Will alt weeklies, like yours truly, stand a chance faced with these same odds? Are our escort ads enough to keep us afloat?

There is a slight silver lining according to the article:

"Fitch is generally pessimistic across the board, assigning negative outlets to nearly all sectors from Yellow Pages to radio and TV and theme parks. But the newspaper industry is the most at risk of defaulting, it says."