Will The Oregonian scoop up The Columbian?

Knock, knock.
Who's there?
The Oregonian.
The Oregonian who?
The Oregonian, Vancouver's largest newspaper!*

Oh my god! Seriously guys, this business of a The Columbian newspaper going under isn't funny!

I highly doubt Mr. Scott Campbell owner and publisher of The Columbian newspaper and The Columbian building** had his eyes set on driving his family owned business into the ground. But boy oh boy, he gambled big time.

Uhg. This is kind of a blah blah bail out story. Rich people who take giant risks suffer yadda yadda. Say the City of Vancouver buys the Columbian building, does that save the paper? If it doesn't save the paper then what?

Enter The Oregonian. My Columbian and Oregonian are delivered by the same guy. What more evidence do you need? I'm joking, kinda. Who better to help out a newspaper that is falling apart than a super nice neighboring newspaper who writes for and about your community anyway. They do already share their routes.

OTHER Journalist and papers have been watching the decline of print media and rise of online newspapers for years. It shouldn't surprise anyone that a newspaper that is relatively small in circulation and limited in original content JUST WON'T MAKE IT in this day and age. Ad revenue is down across the board. I'm not going to give you a Old Media vs New Media 101 lecture. Chances are if you are reading this blog you already know the principle. In 2005 newspapers weren't booming. Did somebody forget to tell Scott Campbell? Buying that land and building on it is the same thing as that jerk who bought a giant yellow Hummer four years ago -- dumb.

No one owns the internet and that is where I get all of my information. Instead of reading a syndicated story from The New York Times I can just hop online and read it straight from the source. It's hard for me to admit most people do not spend as much time online as I do. I know people who actually read the actual newspaper everyday. A newspaper of any kind is important to this community. I don't care who owns it as long as it is informative, honest, investigative and community driven. That is if I still read a paper cover to cover in The Couve.

Does Vancouver, Washington need it's very own newspaper? Course it does! Maybe it doesn't have to be locally owned. I don't know. Tell me I'm wrong.

*If you use this joke please credit me. It's not polite to take someones original content and call it your own.

**True story: I delivered a pizza to the site before it was complete. I walked into one of the trailers and right on the table near the door was a nudey magazine center page! Of course no one was in there. I turn around and their is a big construction guy running towards me to pay for the pizza...