The Atlantic: The Print Apocalypse of American Newspapers.
The emerging business models of the Times and the Wall Street Journal are slowly traveling back in time to recover the subscription-first model that dominated the industry before the 1830s—with one important catch. The 1830s were a heyday of local papers; without the advent of telegraphs or telephones, news didn't travel well. But today it’s local news organizations that are suffering the most.
Local's where it's at, where it's always been at. Nobody's figured out how to monetize it properly. Yet.