Stop the Press: We're Broke

These days the worst news the Seddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), Germany's leading subscription national daily, has to report is about its own economic plight. This year the SZ expects to lose €50 million, plans to cut 600 jobs and has canceled whole sections. The only consolation for the Munich-based publication: many of the country's 380 newspapers are in a similar state. Germany's papers enjoyed almost continuous expansion since the end of World War II.

Then, after the stock market decline of 2000, companies slashed advertising. Last year advertising plummeted by 13% and that figure is estimated to drop...