From where I see it, Tomorrow's generation simply doesn't use newspapers the same way as anyone has in the last 200 years.
Paywalls are another kiss of death for newspapers that are already searching for relevancy in today's world. I have zero clue why they're doing them again, they had tried them before and failed. Short of industry wide collusion, if one paper in town charges, and the other doesn't, all the online traffic will go to the free one. Not to mention we can get more information, quicker, from multiple sources online and it's only going to get easier.
The rise of bloggers on newspaper websites shows how many other places we're willing to get our information.
I don't want newspapers to go away. I like the experience of reading a paper. It's almost relaxing compared to the constant distractions from screens.
Still they're massively laying off people and not publishing on certain days. Newspapers need to find a way to make money and be sustainable. Maybe there's a middle of a new kind of subscription of not getting access to the articles right away without paying.
My background: Worked in the newspaper industry for 4 years around the last dotcom boom. Remember the horror then..