According to the newspaper, parent company Hearst informed employees earlier this year that “if it couldn't find a buyer in 60 days the paper would likely close or continue to exist only online.” That puts the time-table for moving to an online-only version at “any day now,” which could mark an interesting experiment in the fate of the traditional newspaper.
How would an online-only local newspaper work? Much like an offline/online paper, I’d imagine, with a host of local reporters to cover city hall, events, and the local sports teams. National news could be brought in from the wire services like AP and Reuters, while columnists would be transformed into bloggers, providing their commentary online as opposed to in print.
In doing so, the paper eliminates a lot of the major costs associated with daily newspaper production – printing, delivery, and travel for its reporters. From there, the question is how much demand there is for local news once its moves to an online-only format, but with a local focus, the newspaper should be able to attract premiums for ads.