This article begins with a false analogy in its comparison of the plights of railroads and newspapers. Newspapers are not in the "newsprint" business, as suggested here, but rather in the journalism business. The mechanism for distribution of the information is not especially relevant, nor does it impact the newspaper companies' core competencies as much as any of the sources of this article suggest.

I don't really think it's as much of a stretch to imagine newspaper companies expanding into other media as it is to imagine railroads expanding into airborne freight. The problem is that strictly online providers were able to provide comparable information in a more convenient medium years before anyone in newspapers saw the light.

Of course, that doesn't mean it's too late to embrace online as the medium of choice for journalism companies.