Three days after I wrote a blog on the possible extinction of The Miami Herald, Jack Cafferty of the Cafferty File on CNN has jumped onto the story.

Jack reports that there has been a 15% drop in advertising sales within the newspaper industry this year during the recession, and as I reported, this is likely due to people turning exclusively to the Internet rather than throwing away coinage for a newspaper.

I also reported in my blog three days ago that the McClatchy Company, which owns 30 newspapers, is $2 billion in debt. Jack Cafferty reports that the resulting courses of action have now seen the McCalatchy Company cut 2,550 jobs this year among other steps to cut $200 million in spending.

It's also been made public now that The New York Times has cut costs by closing print plants.

Will a possible extinction of newspapers affect you or me? It will likely have no effects on me because I gather all my news over the Internet and television, but for the older generation and traditionalists, probably so.

The Internet is much more viable in a time of recession because of its cheap nature, and also noteworthy is its friendliness to the environment. All those newspapers over the years have chopped down a lot of trees, killing a lot of ecosystems.

Whatever the outcome may be, the downward spiral for the newspaper industry is surely to continue into 2009 and beyond.