Scripps-Howard's Roy Howard, who got his start in journalism in Indianapolis 63 years ago, had a special fondness for his old paper, the Indianapolis Times. Roy, it was always said, would never kill the Times. Last year Roy Howard died at 81, and last week Scripps-Howard quietly folded the money-losing, 77-year-old Times.
In some ways, the Times was doing about as well as it ever had, but that was not well enough. Circulation stood at 91,235, a slight gain over last year. Ad revenue was up 6% over the year before. However, payroll and production costs had risen far more sharply. Like...